‘Micro-herd’ immunity sought for private sector

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion proposed a micro-herd approach in the COVID vaccine rollout, following the initial shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the private sector.

“I believe that if we are able to vaccinate 80-plus percent of employees in a building, that means herd immunity is achieved in that group, awaiting full herd immunity that is necessary for the country’s economic recovery,” Concepcion said.

The Philippines recently took 1,150,800 AstraZeneca doses, the very first batch from the 5.5 million doses procured by about 500 companies and some local governments through “A Dose of Hope” initiative.

Launched in November, “A Dose of Hope” was a program by the private sector to help secure enough vaccines for the Philippines through a tripartite deal with the national government and the drug manufacturer.

Beneficiaries

Concepcion said the program would benefit over 2.7 million employees.

He said another 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses are expected in August, and the rest of the ordered vaccines in the coming months.

“We want to help the government so that we can execute the vaccine rollout in the fastest and most efficient way possible. Allowing us to execute, we could focus on the vaccination of our employees, the [local governments] on its constituents, and the national government…on the rest [who] are not covered. We need a fast and almost perfect rollout, and the private sector, with the arrival of these initial doses from AstraZeneca, can now do that for its employees,” Concepcion said.

Th National Task Force Against COVID-19 said the private sector-procured vaccines have increased the country’s stockpile of AstraZeneca doses to 6.8 million. Japan earlier donated 1.1 million, while the COVAX global vaccine pool donated 4.5 million doses to the Philippines.