Lacson laments govt's 'late' plans for COVID-19 vaccine passport

Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday lamented the government’s late planning on the proposed COVID-19 vaccine passports.

“Plano pa lang? Late again,” Lacson said in a tweet.

He was reacting to a dzBB report on Malacañang’s support to the Department of Health’s plans to establish vaccine passports for the country’s inoculation drive.

In another tweet, Lacson urged the government to get the job done in the vaccine rollout in order to speed up the inoculation of more Filipinos.

"The best way out of this pandemic is for our people to ‘get the jab done’ and our government to ‘get the job done,’" he said.

In a separate statement, the lawmaker said the government must continue finding ways to improve the implementation of the vaccine program and encourage more people that vaccines can protect them against COVID-19.

Lacson reiterated his support on the use of legal and creative means to convince Filipinos to get vaccinated as these will help the government achieve herd immunity.

On the other hand, Senator Francis Pangilinan said the government is “lagging behind” with its vaccination drive and said that it “could be done much better.”

“What happened to the information dissemination drive?” Pangilinan asked in an ANC interview as he observed vaccine hesitancy has increased despite the government’s vaccine drive efforts.

The lawmaker mentioned the more than 100,000 Filipinos who did not return to vaccination sites to get their second dose, based on the report submitted by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to Congress.

On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon hit the government’s “sluggish” vaccine rollout.

Around six million Filipinos have received COVID-19 vaccine so far. Of this number, 1,604,260 individuals have been fully vaccinated or have received the needed two doses.—AOL, GMA News