FOLLOWING the widespread destruction it caused in several provinces during the weekend, Supertyphoon Odette (international codename: Rai) is now also threatening the government’s inoculation targets this year.
The National Vaccination Operation Center (NVOC) reported that it will be hard for local government units (LGUs) affected by Typhoon Odette to meet their goals under the second National Vaccination Days (NVD).
The government aims to administer 7 million Covid-19 jabs during the second NVD. But from December 15 to 20, 2021, it was only able to administer 3.7 million vaccines under the initiative.
NVOC chairperson Myrna C. Cabotaje said many of the LGUs in Regions 6, 7, 8 and Caraga are still reeling from the effects of Odette and are not expected to mount their inoculation drive until next week.
To compensate for the delay in the inoculation drive in these areas, she said they decided to increase the vaccination targets in areas which were not severely affected by Odette.
“We will see if we can ramp up [vaccination] in Region 3 and 4-A because the population in Region 7 is high. So if they [Region 7] will not start immediately we will have a hard time achieving 54 million by the end of the year,” Cabotaje said in a television interview on Tuesday.
The government held the second NVDs to help it meet its goal of 54 million fully-vaccinated Filipinos before the end of the year.
As of Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) was able to tally 44.2 million fully-inoculated Filipinos.
Aside from disrupting the inoculation drive, Typhoon Odette also led to vaccine wastage due to power outages.
This left some vaccine vials, which require cold temperatures, without any refrigeration.
DOH reported last Monday that 100 Covid-19 jabs in Region 6 were ruined because of such a power outage.
Cabotaje said they are currently verifying the status of 24,600 additional Covid-19 vaccines in the same region, which may have also been ruined for the same reason.