WHO flags unequal vaccine distribution in regions, provinces

MANILA, Philippines — There is inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s country representative said yesterday.

Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said the WHO observed an “inequitable situation with regard to access to vaccines” in the provinces outside the National Capital Region (NCR) and major cities.

“WHO has raised previously several times its concern that we do not see equity … especially for the most vulnerable, the A2 and A3 groups where coverage ranges from about 30 to 40 percent in many of the regions and provinces,” he noted, referring to seniors and those with comorbidities prioritized for vaccination.

Abeyasinghe has urged local government units in the regions to ramp up vaccination among the priority groups since the availability of vaccines has already increased.

“We need to do that in those regions that are continuing to see increased number of cases if we are to save more lives,” he added, as he stressed the overwhelming of hospitals can be prevented if elderly and people with comorbidities are fully vaccinated.

1.5 M daily target

National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. urged local government units (LGUs) to further ramp up their vaccination output so the country can achieve a daily jab rate of one million to 1.5 million.

“Our goal is for LGUs to inoculate 70 percent of their eligible population with at least one dose by November. We cannot scale up our national vaccination output if we just settle with our current jab rate,” he said.

The NTF identified highly urbanized cities and regions that would take the lead in pushing the country’s daily vaccination output to 1.5 million doses following the influx of vaccine supplies from various manufacturers and the opening of the vaccine rollout to the general population including minors.

According to National Vaccination Operations Center chair and DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, 75,804,550 doses have been deployed to various regions as of Oct. 21.

More than 18.4 million doses were deployed to the NCR, around 11.2 million doses sent to Calabarzon, while nine million doses were dispatched to Region 3.

More vaccines are expected to be deployed in the identified priority cities in the coming days.

“With the steady arrival of bigger COVID-19 vaccine shipments, our LGUs must work double time to realize President Duterte’s directive, and that is, to continue to ramp up their vaccination rollout,” Galvez said.

“We have a plateau in the past few days of just 400,000 to 500,000 jabs daily. If this will continue, we cannot get to 50 million fully vaccinated (individuals) by yearend,” he said.

The Philippines has received a total of 94,678,340 doses of COVID-19 vaccines since February.

More than 58.7 million doses were procured by the government, 24.3 million doses were donations from the COVAX Facility, 7.9 million purchased by LGUs and the private sector and 3.6 million doses were donations from bilateral partners.