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| Frontliners get inoculated with the Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine during the continuation of vaccination for health workers and frontliners at Marikina Sports Complex on March 24, 2021.(Photo by Michael Varcas/ The Star) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA: Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday urged the national government to decentralize the country's COVID-19 vaccination program, which is still mostly implemented by local government units, PhilStar reported. Speaking on her weekly radio show aired over dzXL, Robredo also asked the government to prioritize senior citizens, seafarers, and overseas Filipino workers with any extra vaccine supplies, saying the three sectors have long been waiting to get vaccinated.
Vaccination has been opened to the general public and to minors with comorbidities. The coronavirus task force, in its latest update, said 51.48 million doses of vaccines have been administered around the country. "It's a waste [that] we have many vaccines now but it's too centralized. I hope they liberalize [for example] companies so that they can open up to their employees," she said in mixed Filipino and English. "There are teachers who are going back to school, those who need to go back to work, need to be redeployed." Robredo also said that her office's volunteers could offer to provide manpower in the event that vaccination programs across the country are lacking.
The Office of the Vice President has put up programs such as Vaccine Express sites in cooperation with various local government units in the country. In those programs, it was LGUs that supplied the vaccine stores to be used.
