MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will shift its focus to conducting house-to-house and mobile COVID-19 immunization drives as fewer are going to centers to get jabbed, the government’s vaccine czar said.
Carlito Galvez, who also heads the National Task Force Against COVID-19 and is the presidential peace adviser, said the vaccine uptake in the country has dropped to less than 500,000 doses daily from one million.
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He also mentioned the low turnout during the third round of the government’s massive COVID-19 vaccination push. Authorities were able to vaccinate around 3.44 million individuals from February 10 to 18, failing to meet the target of inoculating five million people.
"We have reached the saturation point or what we call the inflection point for our vaccination centers. We now need to visit barangays and go house-to-house to raise our daily output," Galvez said during a briefing aired late Monday.
Latest government data showed that over 62.5 million people have completed vaccination against COVID-19. The government is aiming to fully vaccinate 90 million individuals by end-June.
The vaccine czar also said the government will continue to focus on the remaining three million senior citizens and people with comorbidities who have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The administration of booster doses must be also accelerated, he added. Since boosters were rolled out in November last year, only 9.7 million people have received additional shots.
"We need to direct the 12 regions with high coverage to shift their focus in administering the boosters," Galvez said, referring to all regions in the country, except for Bicol region, Caraga, Mimaropa, Soccsksargen and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
"We also need to dedicate days for the administration of boosters."