Health Secretary Francisco Duque III admitted that the Philippines may miss its goal to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 this year.
Duque cited the slow pace of the vaccine rollout due to delays on delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.
He said the country instead may achieve herd immunity by the first quarter of 2022 under worst-case scenario.
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“Under the worst-case scenario, maybe siguro until about the first quarter of 2022. If the vaccines don’t come as expected,” he said in an interview with ANC.
The Philippines eyes vaccinating 70 million Filipinos to achieve herd immunity, when enough of the populace is immune to the virus.
“We need 140 million doses of vaccines to reach herd immunity. We need to vaccinate 70 million people,“ Duque said.
“Ang byahe ng bakunahan sa Pilipinas malayo pa talaga ‘yan for obvious reasons, hindi naman supisyente or sapat ang bakuna. It’s not a funding problem, we have the money,” he furthered.
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According to the National Task Force against COVID-19, as of April 29, more than 1.8 million Filipinos have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. the country has so far secured 148 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from seven manufacturers.
He said the Philippines is expecting an accelerated delivery of vaccines by May while the bulk of the vaccines procured is expected to arrive by midyear. (RA)
