Vaccination 24/7 seen at Nayong Pilipino site

MANILA, Philippines — While the Department of Health (DOH) earlier said it was not yet prioritizing the non-stop operation of vaccination sites, the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 said the mega vaccination facility that the government was planning to build inside Nayong Pilipino could be capable of doing vaccinations round the clock.

NTF spokesman Restituto Padilla over the weekend said since the plan is for the mega vaccination site to have its own storage facility, continuous vaccination could be possible there, which he said the government plans to launch within 45 days.

“What’s good about this is this has its own storage facility, the 24/7 (vaccination) can be done there because they can get their hands on vaccines unabated,” he said in an interview aired over dzBB.

The Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF) board earlier expressed its apprehensions about the planned vaccination site due to its environmental impact, noting how around 500 trees would have to be felled to make way for the facility.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief policy implementer of the NTF, earlier assured the NPF that the project’s designer, architect Felino Palafox Jr., has “already factored in the environmental impact of the project in the design of the vaccination center.”

The proposed vaccination center will play an instrumental role in the government’s planned massive rollout of the vaccination program once more supplies arrive in the coming months. Galvez had said the proposed jab center at Nayong Pilipino would be able to facilitate the inoculation of 10,000 people daily.

Lagging behind

With over four million COVID-19 vaccine doses injected into the priority population in the country, the Philippines has dropped to 10th place among Southeast Asian nations in terms of vaccinating its whole population.

As of Saturday, the NTF said the government has administered 3.1 million jabs of the first dose, while 949,939 Filipinos have already been injected with their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The current daily jab average is pegged at 162,513.

“Hitting the four million mark is a milestone in our national vaccination program. This brings us closer to our goal of achieving a daily vaccination rate of at least half a million and achieve herd immunity before yearend,” Galvez said in a statement yesterday.

While the country boasts of being second in terms of doses injected in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), it is grappling with vaccine hesitancy and a “bias” problem while more supplies are expected to come.

If population was considered in ranking, the Philippines – the second most populated nation in the region – would be ranked 10th in the 11-member ASEAN with only 2.29 percent of the total population injected with at least one dose, based on data from international think tank Our World in Data this month.

Leading the rank would be Singapore – the second least populated nation in the region – with 33.61 percent, followed by Cambodia with 13.32 percent, Laos with 6.53 percent, Indonesia – the most populated country in the region – with 5.37 percent, Malaysia with 4.68 percent, Timor Leste with 3.63 percent, Brunei – the least populated country in the region – with 3.44 percent, Myanmar with 3.26 percent and Thailand with 2.65 percent.