The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) is discussing how it can increase inoculations through mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus, National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) spokesperson Restituto Padilla Jr. said Saturday.
This was after both the Department of Health and Department of the Interior and Local Government supported vaccine mandates to increase coverage rates, which currently stands at just 26 percent of fully-vaccinated Filipinos after eight months of the government inoculation program.
IATF… “This is what is being discussed now in the IATF. Currently, there are discussions on how to push through with mandatory vaccination,” Padilla said in an interview on Dobol B TV.
“Although this is not yet finalized, discussions are still ongoing because there are legal matters that need to be considered. Nonetheless, discussions are already in that direction which are being monitored inside the IATF,” he added.
Meanwhile, the country achieved another milestone in its inoculation program as more than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered on November 4, and the government is planning to roll out five million jabs over three days next week.
A total of 1,119,389 jabs were administered last Thursday, making it the highest daily vaccine throughput recorded since March.
Lawyer Wilben Mayor, Assistant Secretary and chief of staff of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, said this following the arrival of 866,970 doses of government-procured Pfizer vaccines Friday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
In a separate TV interview, DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the department has proposed a “no vaccine, no subsidy” policy to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for unvaccinated beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
Malaya said that many 4Ps beneficiaries still refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19, thus the agency is proposing to “disincentivize” the unvaccinated government aid recipients.
“The 4Ps is called conditional cash transfer because before you can get your regular subsidy from the government, you have to meet certain conditions,” he said.
“You go to a health center, you undergo deworming, your children are in school and are enrolled. So we will add another condition which is vaccination,” Malaya said.
Padilla said the basis for mandatory vaccination are statistics that show most of the severe or critical COVID-19 cases are the unvaccinated ones.
It is also important for the country to achieve herd immunity against the virus so that the economy can recover faster, he added.
“If ever this becomes a law, there will be repercussions against those who refuse to get vaccinated unless they have reasons such as medical conditions which could put them in danger if vaccinated,” Padilla said.
The Department of Health (DOH) expressed support Friday for the mandatory vaccination of specific vulnerable sectors against COVID-19, saying it is needed to achieve population protection.
Vaccine czar and NTF Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. on Thursday said he is now in favor of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 and that an executive order from President Rodrigo Duterte may be sufficient for it.
"I believe it is possible similar to what we did with the no smoking policy. We can only achieve safety and protection if all of us are vaccinated,” he said, citing the World Health Organization.
As for the new vaccines, Mayor said: “Yesterday, we got one million jabs per day. From 700,000, to 1 million, up to 1.5 million. Same projection everyday with the help of the private sector, the local government units, as well as other private entities.”
He thanked the United States government for facilitating the procurement and shipment of the Pfizer vaccines.
More than 109 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the country as of November 5, of which 16.5 million Pfizer shots were procured by the national government.
Another 866,970 procured Pfizer vaccine doses were expected to arrive on Saturday night.
Mayor was joined by US Embassy economic officer Saptarshi Basu and Department of Health Director Ariel Valencia in receiving the vaccine shipment.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has deployed hundreds of staff and volunteers nationwide to help augment the vaccination drive in various local government units (LGUs).
More than 2,300 people were vaccinated in one day from various LGUs in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao on Friday, November 5.
The manpower augmentation is widely appreciated by each LGU as PRC staff and volunteers assisted each of their health offices in the actual jabbing process and documentation.