Nag-refocus ang National task Force Against COVID-19 sa vaccination program.
Sa Laging Handa Public Briefing, sinabi ni Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje na sa halip na herd immunity, gagamitin na lamang ang terminong population protection. Gagawin aniya ito sa pamamagitan ng mass immunization.
“We are shifting to the term “population protection” through mass immunization kasi po iyong ating herd immunity, marami pong mga kaakibat na mga criteria: We are considering the variant; We are considering the regular definition of the herd immunity na magkakaroon ka ng protection, ng full protection na tuluy-tuloy. Kasi ngayon, hindi pa natin alam kung kailangan ng mga booster shots at saka iyong mga ibang bakuna ay naa-address pa iyong ating mga variants. So ang ating term ngayon ay really “population protection,” pahayag ni Cabotaje.
Layunin aniya ng pamahalaan na mapigilan ang hospitalization at pagkamatay ng mga pasyente na nagpopositibo sa COVID-19.
“We prevent hospitalization. We prevent and minimize deaths by prioritizing. And the bigger the population that is vaccinated, we have population protection so hindi magkakahawaan. Kung may magkahawaan man, this will be very mild. And hindi naman transmissible usually kapag nabakunahan ka na, hindi ka na makaka-transmit o kung maka-transmit ka man ng infection ay very mild ang symptoms,” pahayag ni Cabotaje.
“Ang ating tina-target will be based on our global supply. So alam naman natin na may konting problema ngayon sa merkado because of the surging cases in India tapos nasunog pa, so we were looking before at targeting 70 million na Filipinos by end of this year or early next year. Medyo ni-refocus natin ito at ang target natin ay about 50 to 60% naka-concentrate iyan sa NCR Plus para mas mapabilis – mass vaccination, population protection in geographic setting. So naka-limit sa certain geographic areas,” pahayag ni Cabotaje.
Pero ayon kay Cabotaje, kapag dumami na ang suplay ng bakuna sa bansa, maaring maabot pa rin ng pamahalaan ang target na mabakunahan ang 70 milyong Filipino bago matapos ang taong 2021.
“But if the supply will be good and the global market will improve and dadami ang supply, we will be able to give more and reach our initial target na 70 million by end of this year,” pahayag ni Cabotaje.
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