DOH: Number of vaccinated seniors up but still below target

The number of senior citizens vaccinated against COVID-19 has gone up in recent weeks but remains below the target, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

“Of late, these past two weeks, we were able to increase the number of those senior citizens being vaccinated but of course it’s still not reaching that target that we would want,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told ANC in an interview.

As of July 25, only about 2.8 million senior citizens have gotten a COVID-19 jab

The government is aiming to vaccinate around 9 million senior citizens. 

Last week, the World Health Organization expressed concern over the “unacceptable” low rate of vaccination of senior citizens despite there being enough supplies for them. 

“We have had challenges vaccinating A2 and A3 sectors, probably because of access sometimes,” Vergeire said, referring to senior citizens and persons with comorbidities.

She said authorities launched the “Tutok A2” program to address the issue.

“We have encouraged local governments for them to be able to give more access to senior citizens, like doing house to house for them or having these specific vaccination sites for our senior citizens,” Vergeire explained.

Last month, Pasig became the first city to vaccinate 100% of its elderly population, which Mayor Vico Sotto said was achieved through information dissemination and house-to-house registration of senior citizens. 

The Philippines has so far inoculated over 11 million individuals, still far from the government’s goal of vaccinating 70 million people. — RSJ, GMA News