Population protection was needed to ensure that the voice of the majority will be heard in the 2022 elections, according to Zubiri.
On Thursday, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said that the Philippines needed to reach COVID-19 population protection by the end of the year in order to ensure that the voice of the majority will be heard in the upcoming 2022 elections.
Citing Pulse Asia survey last June, Zubiri said in a press conference with the Bacolod media via Zoom that Filipinos were asked if they would go out and vote if the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation in their area was high and the result was quite alarming since the election of local and national leaders should reflect the voice of the majority.
According to Zubiri, 46% of the respondents said that they wouldn’t vote and that was a large percentage who will not vote and they can’t be blamed because their lives were important. Zubiri added that 19% were undecided, and only 35% said they would vote.
He said that even if there’s a low turnout of voters, it will not necessarily mean a failure of elections, adding that the fear was those elected will not be chosen by the majority.
Zubiri also pointed out that the president could be elected by only 10% to 15% of the population.
Zubiri also said that the target was to inoculate 77 million Filipinos against COVID-19 by the end of the year in order to hit population protection, but 64 million still need to be inoculated.
According to him, there were only 142 days left to hit population protection by the end of the year and to achieve that there needed to be a daily vaccination rate of 450,704 nationwide.
As of Thursday, he said that 14.1 million Filipinos had received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 12 million Filipinos had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which was 15% of the target.
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Moreover, Zubiri said that what was dangerous was the Delta COVID-19 variant that’s “very strong and tough” as it had caused the hospitalization of many – including children. The senator added that Filipinos needed to protect the children by vaccinating the adults and children aged 12 to 17 years old can also be vaccinated eventually.
Amidst complaints that vaccines were arriving in the provinces in trickles, Zubiri said that he had appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) that 30% of the vaccines be allocated for the National Capital Region (NCR) and 70% to the rest of the country.
On the complaints that COVID-19 vaccination cards issued by local governments weren’t being accepted in Hong Kong, Zubiri said that the Philippine Bureau of Quarantine issued vaccine passports for those who traveled. According to him, he will see if the Bureau of Quarantine issuance of COVID-19 vaccine passports can also be done in the provinces.
Meanwhile, Zubiri said that employers cannot force their workers to be vaccinated or fire them for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 unless the law was amended.
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