Palace vows to speed up COVID-19 vaccination

Malacañang vowed Wednesday to improve the pace of COVID-19 vaccination in the country.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque issued the statement a day after a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll showed 50% of Filipinos saying the pace of COVID-19 vaccination program is slow.

"To improve access to and pace of vaccination, we are addressing vaccine supplies by procuring more vaccines, increasing personnel or vaccinators by considering pharmacists and medical interns/underboard, and having barangay health centers as vaccination sites," Roque said.

Likewise, Roque said the government is undertaking initiatives, together with the LGUs and the private sector, to have malls as vaccination sites, deploy drive-thru vaccination, bakuna all day/night, house-to-house vaccination to inoculate the elderlies and vulnerables, to speed up the vaccination.

"Rest assured that we will not rest until we achieve population protection, for no one is safe, as the President [Rodrigo Duterte] underscored, until all of us are safe," Roque added.

Around 12.5 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, way behind the target of fully vaccinating 76.3 million people by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.

The government's COVID-19 vaccination started last March 1.

The government has 42 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine supply so far, but only 27 million doses have been administered. — Llanesca T. Panti/RSJ, GMA News