Philippines should copy Israel's vaccination process, Leachon says

Philippines should emulate Israel's rapid mass vaccination program against COVID-19 to reach its target for herd immunity, health expert Dr. Tony Leachon said on Thursday.

Last week, Israelis were able to remove their face masks outdoors after 81% of their residents  have received both doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. 

"What they (Israel) did was 24/7 vaccination program. Walang tulugan. They ditched already, tinanggal na nila iyong masks nila. In four months, they (Israel) were able to flatten the curve already," said Leachon in a phone interview with GMA News Online.

The health expert also cited that Israel reopened its economy after it inoculated 50% of its population.

Meanwhile, Leachon called for an increase of vaccination sites to fast track inoculation of residents. He also lauded the private sector for helping out in logistics for vaccination.

"Dapat mag increase ng vaccination sites kasi kung ang target natin ay 70% of population, matatagalan tayo," Leachon explained.

(They need to increase vaccination sites because if we are targeting about 70% of the population it will take us too much time.)

Philippines logged a total of 971,049 COVID-19 cases on Thursday. Of the total infections, 846,691 are recoveries and 16,370 are deaths. 

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said almost 1.4 million Filipinos were vaccinated since March 1.—Consuelo Marquez/LDF, GMA News