As the election period draws near, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Carlito Galvez Jr. has asked incumbent local officials to set aside political differences with their opponents and focus on the country’s inoculation program.
Galvez also urged local government units to brace for more supplies and work closely with stakeholders to ramp up their vaccination rollout.
“With the steady arrival of vaccines, we call on our local leaders and regional directors to set aside political differences and focus on our efforts to inoculate as many people as possible,” he said.
According to Galvez, the country has more than 36 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in its national warehouses, which are scheduled for deployment across the country.
“There’s no more problem with our supply. The challenge now is throughput, administration, and demand. That’s why we are calling on the LGUs, the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) included, the mayors, governors, military, and the police force to do better in the vaccination program,” he said.
The vaccine czar said LGUs must be creative in scaling up their vaccination throughput by looking for ways to generate greater demand among their constituents, and consequently, increase the daily vaccination output throughout the regions.
Local chief executives, he pointed out, should take the lead in initiating partnerships with different agencies, as well as the private sector in order to get the COVID-19 jab into the arms of more people.
“If there is a need for mobility to transport people or healthcare workers to vaccination sites, they can request and tap the PNP (Philippine National Police) and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines),” Galvez said.
“They may also partner with the private sector or other sectors to make things happen because our collective vision here is for us to reopen and recover our economy and safely exit the pandemic,” he added.
On Sunday, the United States government, through the COVAX Facility, sent another 918,450 doses of Pfizer vaccines to the Philippines.
“We’re really proud to be part of this effort here in the Philippines to vaccinate the Filipino people including teenagers and children so we can get them back to school,” US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava said during the shipment’s arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.
This shipment is part of the 1.8 million total doses committed to the Philippines from the US government through the COVAX Facility. The remaining donation consisting of 924,300 doses were expected to arrive on Monday.
As of Oct. 10, a total of 86,494,050 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to the country, of which 22,561,180 doses came from the COVAX facility.