MANILA—A total of 24,661 senior citizens have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 since the PinasLakas campaign started on July 26.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, Department of Health (DOH) Officer in Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government aims to protect 90 percent of the elderly population through the vaccination drive.
“So, this is just 2.03 percent of our targeted population for our primary series for senior citizens,” she said. “That is very far from the target per day of 17,000 accomplishments.”
For the first booster dose, Vergeire said the DOH has reached over 2.1 million individuals or 8.82 percent of the targeted eligible population of 23 million.
“No region has reached at least 50 percent coverage in this PinasLakas Campaign,” she said.
However, the National Capital Region has reached 47 percent vaccination rate, the highest among the regions.
Earlier, the DOH conducted a survey to identify why fewer people want to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Apart from lack of access to vaccination sites, Vergeire noted that some individuals still believe that Covid-19 jabs could cause harm to their health.
She said this factor is especially true for the senior citizens.
“They have other ailments already and they have shorter time to live, so they are saying they don’t need the boosters anymore,” she added.
The DOH has presented to the Centers for Health Development in different regions varying strategies to increase vaccination coverage.
It also requested various medical societies to help push the campaign for booster doses.
“We are planning for a special week of vaccination drive for the whole Philippines in September,” Vergeire said.
The DOH, through the special vaccination week, hopes to achieve at least 50 percent of its PinasLakas drive targets to increase the wall of immunity in the country.
As of August 28, about 72,476,610 individuals are fully vaccinated and 17,843,348 have received their booster doses.
Meanwhile, the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) said Thursday the most severe and critical cases of Covid-19 in their facilities are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated.
PHAPI President Dr. Rene de Grano said in a televised public briefing that the intensive care units of private hospitals in the country “can still cope with the [number] of Covid-19 patients.”
This was after Vergeire confirmed that the percentage of severe and critical Covid-19 cases in hospitals is increasing but is still within the threshold.
On Monday, the department reported 811 or 9.7 percent of the total Covid-19 admissions in hospitals are severe and critical cases.
In the past four weeks, DOH data showed that severe and critical infections comprised more than 9 percent of hospital admissions.
“Many among the admissions are mild cases that are incidental Covid. They are discharged in a few days,” de Grano said.
He noted that most of the Covid-19 cases that reach the critical or severe stage are the elderly with no vaccination.
As of August 22, about 72,310,149 or 92.59 percent of the country’s target population (78,100,578) have been vaccinated against Covid-19, including 78.01 percent of 8,721,357 senior citizens. PNA
Image credits: PNA/Gil Calinga