Gov’t may again fall short of ‘Bayanihan, Bakunahan’ target –DOH

The government may fail to achieve its target of vaccinating 1.8 million more Filipinos during the fourth wave of the "Bayanihan, Bakunahan" national vaccination drive, an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said on Sunday.

In a Super Radyo dzBB interview, Health Undersecretary and National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) chairperson Dr. Myrna Cabotaje reiterated that as of the second day of the three-day initiative, only 44.49% of the target were vaccinated, with 836,162 cumulative doses administered.

“Nahirapan at medyo maraming mga factors na bakit hindi naabot ‘yung ating target na 1.8 [million]. We’re expecting na third day kasi Sabado, mas mababa siguro ang turnout. So baka mga 60 [thousand]. Hanggang isang milyon mahigit lang ang maari nating maabot ng tatlong araw,” she said.

(It was difficult and there were many factors why we did not reach our target of 1.8 million. We’re expecting that the turnout will be lower on the third day because it’s Saturday. So maybe about 60 thousand. We might only reach around a million in three days.)

Bayanihan, Bakunahan 4 was conducted from March 10 to 12, 2022, aiming to get more senior citizens and children vaccinated against COVID-19.

Cabotaje said that one of the reasons for this failure to achieve the 1.8 million target was the rain showers and flooding in several areas, resulting in people not being able to go out and the vaccinators not being able to proceed with house-to-house jabs.

She pointed out that some Filipinos are also now complacent and think they no longer need the primary and booster doses as the COVID-19 infections nationwide have been decreasing.

“Marami pa rin tayong hindi nababakunahan lalo na sa mga senior. Hirap na hirap tayo mag-kumbinsi sa ating mga senior na magpabakuna kasi sabi nila, wala na silang papatunguhan kung hindi diyan so hindi na nila kailangan magpabakuna,” she added.

(Many are still unvaccinated, especially among seniors. It is very difficult for us to convince our seniors to get vaccinated because they say they have nowhere to go so they don't need to get vaccinated.)

She further noted that vaccination output remained low in the BARMM and Mimaropa Regions, having only inoculated 15,000 and 14,000 respectively during the first two days of the initiative.

Due to this, Cabotaje said that the Health Department would restrategize and extend the Bayanihan, Bakunahan this coming week in areas with low vaccination rates.

“Up to Tuesday for the boosters, and then magre-restrategize. Alam natin na hirap pero hindi sumusuko ang ating mga health workers. Magre-restrategize sila sa mga areas para ma-reach ang ating mga seniors. Ang suggestion ng ibang regions, for the seniors, itutuloy natin hanggang Friday,” she said.

(We will extend the booster inoculation to Tuesday and then we will restrategize. We know it’s hard but our health workers don’t give up. They will restrategize in areas to reach our seniors. The suggestion of other regions is to continue the inoculation among senior citizens until Friday.)

Meanwhile, Cabotaje emphasized that pediatric vaccinations had a good turnout with 50% of those aged 12 to 17 already receiving their primary doses.

“‘Yung 5 to 11, malaki ang kanaisan ng mga magulang na magpabakuna. Even in BARMM and Region 12, you will be surprised na kahit mababa ang BARMM sa overall, sa bata mataas sila sa 5-11,” she said.

(Parents of kids aged 5-11 were willing to have their children vaccinated. Even in BARMM and Region 12. You will be surprised that even though BARMM has the lowest vaccination rate, vaccinations of children aged 5-11 was high.)

“Ang problema nga lang, kulang pa ang ating vaccines,” she added.

(The only problem, is we don’t have enough vaccines.)

It could be recalled that the government also fell short of its then five million target during the third Bayanihan, Bakunahan, which ran from February 10 to 18.

By the end of this initiative, 3.5 million individuals were inoculated against COVID-19.

Based on the Department of Health’s national COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, at least 63.9 million Filipinos were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Of this number, 62.6 million received one dose, while 10.6 million have received booster shots. — DVM, GMA News