The government is considering holding a three-day national vaccination drive from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 to reach its target of inoculating at least 50 million Filipinos against COVID-19 by the end of the year. | LeilasINQ
As of Nov. 7, a total of 29.478 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
BARMM, Galvez said, has geographically isolated areas that make it hard for vaccines to reach residents on top of the lack of cold storage facilities and vaccinators. The Bicol region, on the other hand, has been frequently hit by storms that disrupt its vaccination activities. The national government has also been distributing cold-chain refrigerators donated by the United States to far-flung areas so that local governments with limited storage facilities would be able to store the vaccines.
“We’re confident that we could administer these vaccines before they expire. We have more or less 22 days to exhaust all our means to use these on the people who need it,” he said.The Department of Health , meanwhile, confirmed that some donated vaccines were set to expire by the end of November although these had been sent to local government units with a track record of doling these out quickly.
Under an agreement, the DOH will replace the vaccines when the private companies are ready to use them. “If we are really going to go in that direction of having mandatory vaccination, the DOH will support this if there is a law for us to be able to implement it,” Vergeire said.