Health expert: PH missing vaccination target for elderly, people with comorbidity

FILE PHOTO: A health worker receives the Sinovac Biotech’s Coronavac vaccine on the first day of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) inoculation drive in the Philippines, at the Lung Center of the Philippines, Quezon City, Metro Manila, March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

MANILA, Philippines — The country is missing its targets for vaccinating senior citizens and persons with comorbidity against COVID-19, an epidemiologist advising the government on the pandemic said Wednesday.

Dr. John Wong, a member of the IATF’s sub-technical working group on data analytics, said the country is doing “quite well” only for the vaccination of medical frontliners or those in the A1 group.

Data he presented in an online town hall forum showed that of the 1.5 million medical workers, 1.4 million or 90 percent have already been vaccinated. However, only 1.3 million or 14 percent of the 9.4 million target population for senior citizens, and only 1.1 million or eight percent of the 14.5 million target population for persons with comorbidity had been vaccinated.

“We started vaccination on March 1. If we are targeting 70 percent of the population by December, that means each month, this is 10 months, it means we have to vaccinate about seven percent. So in the three-month period, we should have vaccinated about 21 percent,” he said.

“We are doing well with health workers but not so good with seniors and persons with comorbidity,” he added.

Wong, however, noted that the reason why some people do not get vaccinated is not just because of hesitancy but also due to access issues.

He noted a survey released by the Social Weather Stations this month which showed that only 32 percent of adult Filipinos are willing to get vaccinated.

“Before we say that this is due to vaccine hesitancy, we have to remember that vaccine confidence is 32 percent,” he said. “So even at these levels, we know that some of these people want the vaccine but cannot access it. Aside from the vaccine hesitancy issue we also have to address access issues.”

JPV