Although short of the government’s target of three million, the 2.55 million people inoculated on Monday was 2.5 times the country’s daily average and put the Philippines in fifth place globally in terms of most vaccinations conducted in a single day, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said on Tuesday.
The other four countries in the top 5 were China (22 million), India (10 million), the United States (3.48 million), and Brazil (2.6 million).
Cabotaje, chief of the National Vaccination Operations Center, said the government and its partners would continue convincing more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Cabotaje said that among the major challenges that they encountered were walk-ins, or those who go to vaccination sites without registration, who were not vaccinated, and the nonavailability of doses for minors in some centers.
Cabotaje called on local government units (LGUs) to accommodate everyone who wanted to receive the COVID-19 vaccine today, the last day of the campaign to jab nine million individuals at 8,000 sites nationwide.
“President Duterte’s directive is to accommodate everyone. The directive is we allow walk-ins to be vaccinated. All people who lined up to get vaccinated should not be allowed to go home without getting their vaccine,” Cabotaje said.
She added that the problem with the minors was that vaccines for the pediatric population were not available in some vaccination sites, although there were enough Pfizer and Moderna doses for the adolescent group. (©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
