“Joke po ‘yun,” says Roque about the remark of Duterte to vaccinate sleeping people
COVID-19 VACCINE – Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque claimed President Rodrigo Duterte was only joking when the latter said those who do not want to get a shot will be given while they are sleeping.
The COVID-19 vaccination has rolled out across the country to combat the rapid increase of coronavirus disease.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in the Philippines is an ongoing mass immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
Among those who were on the priority list of the COVID-19 vaccination program are medical frontliners, persons with comorbidities, and senior citizens.
Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sputnik V are some of the vaccines available in the country.
As of October 13, 2021, about 50,936,703 total vaccine doses have been administered throughout the country, with 23,765,641 being fully vaccinated
Meanwhile, in his Talk to the People, President Duterte said that those who do not want to get vaccinated will be injected with the COVID-19 vaccine while they are sleeping.
But when Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was asked on Unang Balita if the President was serious on his remark, he said that it was a “joke only.
“Si Presidente naman po, habang nagto-Talk to the People, gusto mapatawa ang sarili niya. Joke po ‘yun,” he added.
Initially, the government targeted to fully vaccinate at least 70% of the country’s population by the end of 2021. However, according to GMA News, it has since changed to 80% to 90% of the 109 million population before the next year’s polls.
Metro Manila, which is said to be the epicenter of the pandemic in the Philippines, has the widest vaccine coverage at 77%.
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