Drilon hits ‘sluggish’ COVID-19 vaccination drive

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. Screen grab / Senate PRIB file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday hit the government’s “sluggish” COVID-19 vaccination drive, saying he does not yet see “the light at the end of the tunnel” with the current situation.

The statement of Drilon contradicts the earlier remark of President Rodrigo Duterte, who said that Filipinos “can now see the light at the end of the tunnel as the vaccine shipments have arrived, and have started to arrive in bulk.”

“The government must ramp up its vaccination drive and increase its daily vaccination rate. Because at the rate it is going now, I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Drilon said in a statement.

The lawmaker highlighted that only 1.2 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated as of June 2 which is far short of the government’s target of vaccinating at least 70 million of the population.

However, the Department of Health (DOH) earlier said that only nine percent of individuals who got their first dose of the anti-COVID vaccine have deferred getting their second shot. The DOH explained that some people have deferred receiving the second dose due to sickness or because they had to undergo quarantine, and that the pacing of vaccination also depends on the supply.

The senator, meanwhile, also expressed concern about the high percentage of citizens who did not return for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccines, noting that it could cripple the success of the vaccination program.

He noted that as of June 2, only 1,244,582 of 4,003,776 people who have received COVID-19 vaccines have completed the required two doses, based on a report submitted by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to the Senate.

Drilon explained that the number of fully vaccinated citizens only translates to roughly 30 percent of the vaccinated individuals, while the other 70 percent have yet to receive their second dose.

“The government needs to ensure that people return for their second dose. The IATF has to intensify its information drive and innovate in order to get people to complete their doses,” he added.

The senator reminded the government that economic recovery largely depends on the capacity to inoculate at least 70 percent of Filipinos as fast and effectively as possible.

“How many of the 70 percent actually skipped their second vaccine dose? If we do not convince them to complete their doses, it will be detrimental to the success of our COVID-19 vaccination program. We will not achieve herd immunity at this rate,” he stressed.

“Complete your vaccine. Don’t skip your second shot,” Drilon appealed to the Filipinos.

The senate minority leader also expressed concerns that only 20 percent of senior citizens and people with comorbidities were inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines since the rollout of the government’s vaccination program in March.

The senator cited Dr. John Wong, an epidemiologist and member of the IATF’s sub-technical working group on data analytics, who recently said that the government missed its target of vaccinating senior citizens and people with comorbidities.

Only 1.3 million out of 9.4 million senior citizens and 1.1 million out of 14.5 million people with comorbidities have been inoculated since the start of the vaccination drive in February.

The country has administered 5,965,651 total doses of COVID-19 vaccines and recorded 1,544,332 fully vaccinated citizens as of June 7. Faith Yuen Wei Ragasa, Inquirer.net trainee

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