President Duterte had asked Galvez to accommodate LGUs’ “desperate calls” for more COVID-19 vaccines
President Rodrigo Duterte had asked vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr to accommodate the “desperate calls” of some local government units (LGUs) for more COVID-19 vaccines due to the surge of coronavirus cases in different areas in the Philippines.
In his meeting with some members of the government’s pandemic task force on Saturday, President Duterte asked Galvez what the national government can do in order to address the plight of some local government units.
“Many local government units are desperately asking for additional [vaccines]. There’s a strong upsurge of [cases] — in places like Iloilo, Bacolod, Cagayan, Agusan. So kindly tell us what we should be doing to — hinihingi nila ng bakuna, eh. Bacolod is one. The mayor there is asking for more. So when can we accommodate them with sufficient vaccines at this time?” President Duterte said.
In response, the vaccine czar said that the National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF COVID-19) had made an assessment that there’s a need to increase the monthly delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in response to the clamor of some local government units for more COVID-19 vaccine doses.
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“We saw that there is really a great uptake already for many LGUs and we saw that many provincial governors and also mayors are already prepared for the vaccination of their targeted individuals,” he said.
Galvez also told President Duterte that there’s no let-up in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines even during the rainy days. The vaccine czar even showed a photo of people lining up in the flood waiting for their shot.
This, however, didn’t sit well with the President, saying that the problem wasn’t with the vaccine supply but with how local government units handled the situation.
In addition, President Duterte said that local government units should come up with a solution as the current situation exposed the public to more health risks other than COVID-19.
President Duterte’s statement came after different parts of the country saw an increase in the number of coronavirus cases that led to some areas, including Metro Manila, to revert to stricter quarantine classifications.
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