MANILA, Philippines — Around 1.3 million individuals have been vaccinated against COVID-19 during the first two days of the third national vaccination drive dubbed Bayanihan, Bakunahan, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Saturday.
Vergeire noted that the figure is lower than its five-million target.
She reiterated that the immunization drive, initially set on February 10 and 11, is extended until February 18.
“Tuloy-tuloy po ‘yung ating Bayanihan, Bakunahan Program 3 kung saan ay i-extend na po natin hanggang February 18 ang atin pong target dates para po mas marami tayong mabakunahan na kababayan,” Vergeire said during the Laging Handa briefing.
(Our Bayanihan, Bakunahan Program 3, which is extended until February 18, is ongoing to vaccinate more Filipinos.)
“For the past two days, we were able to vaccinate about 1.3 million individuals. Ito po ay mababa pa du’n sa ating target na babakunahan na limang milyon,” she added.
(This is lower than the target of five million.)
According to Vergeire, the low immunization turnout could be attributed to the already high vaccination rate in the National Capital Region (NCR).
She noted that teams were deployed to conduct house-to-house vaccination in areas with low vaccine coverage.
“Maaari ang mga rason ay syempre dito sa NCR tayo po nag-uubos na lang dahil mataas na po ang bakunahan. Ngunit ang atin pong mga teams were mobilized already para galugadin talaga, mag-bahay-bahay du’n sa mga ibang lugar na mabababa po ang vaccination rates,” she explained.
(The reason may be because here in the NCR, we are just administering the remaining vaccines because the inoculation rate is high. But, our teams were mobilized to go house-to-house in areas with low vaccination rates.)
Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles recently said that at least 60 million individuals out of the 77-million target population have been fully vaccinated in the country.
The first Bayanihan, Bakunahan was held on November 29 to December 1 with some areas stretching it until December 3.
The second national vaccination drive commenced on December 15 while some areas started at a later date after reeling from the impact of Typhoon Odette, the strongest tropical cyclone that hit the country in 2021.