Syringe lack for Pfizer forces gov't to cut nat'l jab goal
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said the government's target to vaccinate 15 million Filipinos during the three-day national vaccination starting Monday was reduced to a total of nine million due to insufficient supplies of syringe.
DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya assures that the country has enough supply of COVID-19 vaccines but the target will have to be reduced after the syringes acquired by the Philippines for Pfizer did not arrive.
"We have millions of vaccines now. We do not have a problem but Gen. (Restituto) Padilla (National Task Force spokesman) is correct. Our order of syringe for Pfizer which we procured through UNICEF will not arrive," he said in a radio interview on Sunday morning.
Malaya said the government is planning to conduct another national vaccination day in December to meet its target.
"It's a problem with the global supply that is why we bring down our target to nine million total but we will have another national vaccination day in December so we are still trying to meet our ultimate target for this three days," he said
Malaya also reminded politicians that the national vaccination days are non-partisan activities where political campaign activities will be prohibited.
"Our vaccination sites cannot be used for any partisan political purpose. So we prohibit the posting of tarpaulin with names of politicians," he said.
Malaya also warned politicians who will will use the event for their political campaign to face possible charges from the DILG.
"This is a non-partisan activity and the DILG reminded that it is non-partisan so let us not make it for partisan political purposes. Otherwise, we might issue show cause order and file appropriate charges for violating minimum health standards," he said. Robina Asido/DMS
