PH sticks to ‘population protection’ goal by yearend

MANILA – Malacañang on Wednesday said it has opted to keep the country’s “population protection” from Covid-19 target in Metro Manila and nearby areas before the end of the year.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the national government is determined to prove wrong the report by United Kingdom-based think tank Pantheon Macroeconomics that the Philippines would be among the last to reach herd immunity.

“Our goal remains the same. We will prove them wrong because our goal remains the same—within the year. So that’s the challenge,” Roque said in a media interview in Parañaque City.

Roque said the Philippines can achieve population protection by yearend when the country ramps up its daily vaccination rate.

“We will prove them wrong. And I think ang basehan kasi ng think tank na ‘yan (the basis of the think tank) must have been our pace of vaccination early on na talagang Sinovac lang ang mayroon tayo at kakaunting AstraZeneca. Pero dumating na nga po ang ating mga bakuna at mas marami pang darating (where we only had Sinovac and a few doses of AstraZeneca. But more vaccines have arrived and more are scheduled to arrive),” he said.

He said recent data showed the country has breached its daily vaccination rate from 320,000 to 350,000 in “just a matter of days.”

“So nakikita niyo talaga na we have the ability na mag-vaccinate at talagang inaantay natin mas maraming supply (So as you can see we have the ability to vaccinate and we’re just waiting for a lot of supply),” he added.

‘Game-changer’

Meanwhile, he described as a “game-changer” the launch of vaccination hub at the Solaire Threatre which can accommodate at least 6,000 vaccinees daily, particularly employees of private companies.

“Can you imagine how much faster the pace will be pag nakipagtulungan na ang private sector (once the private sector starts vaccination) using their own utilities? This is a game-changer in the fight against Covid-19,” he said.

Earlier, the national government and pharmaceutical companies have entered into a tripartite agreement with the private sector to buy their own Covid-19 vaccines.

“We are confident that we can fit 500,000 a day. And as I said the math is simple—500 times 10 is 5 million for 10 days so per 20 days we can hit 10 million and sa (with) Pfizer nga we have 40 million na magsisimulang dumating ng August. Pero hindi naman tayo umaasa lang sa Pfizer (that would start arriving by August. But we are not only relying on Pfizer). By the time Pfizer comes, we would have vaccinated anywhere between 12 to 15 million of our people already,” Roque added.

The OCTA Research Group said the Philippines can achieve population protection before Christmas if the country increases vaccination to 350,000.

Population protection is to vaccinate 40 to 50 percent of the population, especially in priority areas, according to the research group.

As of June 19, the government has administered over eight million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Of this number, more than two million persons have been fully vaccinated.