Gov’t ready for national vaccination days — Palace

Malacañang said Friday the government is now ready for the simultaneous COVID-19 vaccination activities from November 29 to December 1.

The government aims to vaccinate 15 million Filipinos during the period.

"Lahat po, iyong deployment, lahat ng assignments, lahat ng tasking at responsibilities down to the regional level at pakikipag-ugnayan po natin sa mga LGUs ay napaghandaan na po nating lahat,” acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said at a press briefing.

(Everything, the deployment, assignments, all the tasks and responsibilities down to the regional level, coordination with local government units, we have prepared them already.)

President Rodrigo Duterte has already issued a proclamation that those who will get vaccinated during the three-day vaccination event will not be marked absent by their employers, provided they present proof of getting a COVID-19 vaccine during those days. 

Nograles said the government did not declare November 29 and December 1 as non-working days to keep the economy moving. November 30 is a non-working holiday in observance of the birth anniversary of revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio. 

“Let’s use this, you know, the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases…this is really our chance and opportunity [for the economy to rebound]. That being said, we need to work and the only ones exempted are those who have to be vaccinated during those three national vaccination days. That’s the logic behind the decision,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

In his report to the President on November 23, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. admitted that the country has a lot of catching up to do to meet the target of fully vaccinating at least 54 million Filipinos by year's end, with only more than 34 million Filipinos fully vaccinated so far. 

"Though we have achieved the highest seven-day average output of 5.8 million jabs, we still need to scale up our daily vaccination to achieve at least 7.5 million jabs per week in order to accomplish our end-goal of 54 million Filipinos completed the second dose by the end of year 2021," Galvez said.

“Our main objective is to have at least 70% first dose vaccine coverage to our major cities and Regions 3, 4A and other regions to catch up with the NCR (National Capital Region) as soon as possible,” he added.

Galvez said that the event would need 11,000 vaccination sites and 160,000 volunteers nationwide.  — VBL, GMA News