Gov’t falls short of 5M vaccination target in 3rd ‘Bakunahan’ drive

MANILA, Philippines — The government has fallen short of its target of vaccinating five million individuals against COVID-19 in the third leg of its national vaccination drive, the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday.

According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the government was able to administer about 3.5 million jabs during the vaccination initiative called “Bayanihan, Bakunahan 3.”

The nationwide activity was initially set from February 10 to 11 but was extended until February 18.

Vergeire said at the Laging Handa public briefing that among the challenges encountered during the mass vaccination was the insufficient number of health workers because they are also conducting inoculation for children and other health initiatives in communities.

She also said that the government may have to re-strategize how it provides the vaccines during these kinds of programs.

“Sa tingin po natin because some of our regions medyo mataas na rin po ang antas ng pagbabakuna, so nakita po natin na talagang kailangan po natin suyurin,” she said.

(We think that some of our regions have a high vaccination coverage, so we really have to go through communities.)

“Ibig sabihin the strategy would be magbabahay-bahay, puntahan ang malalayong lugar. Baka ito na ang susunod natin na intervention para sa ating pagbabakuna,” she added.

(This means we may go house to house and go to far-flung places. Maybe this is the next intervention we should do in vaccination.)

A total of 62.3 million individuals have so far been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 while 6.9 million have already received their boosters, according to Vergeire.

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