Robredo launches third COVID-19 vaccination initiative

Vice President Leni Robredo launched the third installment of her office’s COVID-19 vaccination program with local officials in Iriga City, Camarines Sur as she called on the government to speed up vaccination amid the emergence of the more infectious Delta variant on Thursday.

The COVID-19 vaccination in Iriga, dubbed IrigaVax Express, was done in coordination with the local government unit which provided the COVID-19 vaccine supply and is expected to vaccinate at least 5,000 senior citizens who are second in line under the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

“This is part of the OVP’s continuous efforts to provide logistics support for local government units, to help in the faster and more efficient distribution of vaccines among their residents. Lalo na dahil may Delta variant, dapat bilisan talaga natin ‘yong deployment,” Robredo said.

(With presence of the more infectious Delta variant, we really need to speed up the deployment and administration of vaccines.)

The IrigaVax Express was preceded by similar initiative in Manila City and in Robredo’s hometown of Naga City, Camarines Sur where around 9,600 individuals were vaccinated.

“Kasi while ‘yong vaccines hindi naman assurance na hindi ka na mai-infect ng virus, at least nape-prevent niya ‘yong severity, saka nape-prevent niya ‘yong hospitalization. Mas mabilis na deployment [ng bakuna], better for us,” she added.

(Vaccines do not a guarantee that you will not be infected with the virus, but at least, you prevent being infected with a severe disease and being hospitalized. The faster the deployment of vaccines, the better.)

Robredo said the IrigaVax was done also with the help of Rotary Club of Iriga, Kabalikat CiviCom, Angena Trading, Red Cross-Iriga, Camarines Sur Medical Society, Philippine Academy of Family Physicians-Iriga, Philippine Nurses Association-Iriga, Our Lady of Mediatrix Hospital, and Millennials PH-Iriga, and medical volunteers.

Robredo earlier called on the government to vaccinate as much as 750,000 people on a daily basis en route to faster achievement of herd immunity against COVID-19.

The Philippines has been able to fully vaccinate 10.7 million people so far, way behind the target 76.3 million to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 by the end of the year.—AOL, GMA News