Sen. Christopher Go (Photo from his office)
MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Christopher Go urged local government units on Sunday to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination of all those in high priority groups — that is A1 to A3 — and add more vaccination sites if necessary. By doing so, he said the country can achieve herd immunity sooner and be able to revive the economy.
“Your stocks should not be in storage for long,” Go said in Filipino in a statement. “So many already want to be vaccinated, but they’re just waiting. Some are getting angry. Let’s speed up the system of distributing vaccines so they can be injected on those who need to be injected.”
“Let’s add more vaccination sites so that the vaccines will reach all places in the community,” he added. “If necessary, go to the houses of the old people and those with comorbidities and do it immediately.”
At the same time, Go appealed to those in high-priority groups to trust the vaccines.
“Get vaccinated immediately so that others can be vaccinated too,” he said.
“How can we move on to the next priority groups if there are still many in the A1 to A3 groups who have not been vaccinated?” he added. “Our priority is to have those of our countrymen who are 40 years old and older because they have many cases among them, and the older people are more in danger because of this disease.”
Getting through the A1 to A3 groups would allow health authorities to vaccinate sooner those in the A4 and A5 groups, which include economic frontliners.
Meanwhile, Go urged law enforcement agencies to after those involved in the illegal sale of COVID-19 vaccines in certain areas. All vaccines acquired by the government, he stressed, would be administered for free.
As of May 31, the Philippines has administered more than five million vaccine doses and has the highest rate and vaccination tempo in the ASEAN region. Almost four million have received their first dose while more than one million have completed their doses.
The country has received more than 8.3 million doses to date. It is expecting to get almost 10 million additional doses in June.