MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo echoed calls on Sunday for the national government to deploy more coronavirus vaccines outside of Metro Manila.
As it currently stands, nine economic centers dubbed as “focus areas” are set to receive 42% of the incoming vaccine supply, the Palace disclosed earlier this week.
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Speaking on her weekly radio show, the country’s No. 2 pointed to high infection rates all over the country in areas beyond the so-called NCR+ bubble.
“Our request right now, is not just at Metro Manila, but also for areas of concern all over the Philippines to be given support,” she said in mixed English and Filipino.
Earlier this week, the League of Cities of the Philippines appealed for the government’s coronavirus task force to include more areas in the priority recipients of COVID vaccines following the recent surge of infections in other high-risk cities.
"We deem that the preemptive action of distributing vaccines to a broader number of cities will prevent a potential new wave of case surges throughout the Philippines," Bacolod City Mayor Bing Leonardia and Calapan City Mayor Arnan Panaligan said in the letter addressed to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.
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Robredo pointed to the slow progress of the national vaccination program outside of Metro Manila as one factor that could be solved with better vaccine allocation.
“That’s really the problem. For example, here in NCR, they’re already vaccinating the A5 group, but in the provinces, they’re not even done with the A2,” she said.
“We’re getting so many requests already. Our problem is we can only do so much, because we have to work within the protocols of the [Inter-Agency Task Force] and the local government units too.”
According to the OCTA Research Group, cases outside the capital region, particularly in the noted areas of concern, remained on the rise this past week.
In its latest report on Sunday, the think tank said that three cities have hit full capacity in their intensive care units for COVID-19 patients.
To date, the Philippines has recorded 1.36 million coronavirus infections, over 57,000 of whom are still classified as active cases.
READ: Gov't should aim high instead of lowering 'realistic' year-end vaccination target — Robredo
— Franco Luna with reports from Christian Deiparine