LGUs must vaccinate 80% of seniors to be on Alert Level 1

MANILA, Philippines, February 24 ------ Pandemic task force officials have added two new conditions before local government units (LGUs) can move to Alert Level 1, the most relaxed quarantine restriction that the government considers the “new normal.” Local governments must ensure that at least 80 percent of senior citizens and that 70 percent of the eligible population in their communities have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before they can transition to Alert Level 1.

The added requirements were announced by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. in a televised meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte aired on Monday night. “If (LGUs) cannot achieve all these metrics, then we cannot let them be placed under alert level 1,” Duque said, noting that the suggestion came from NTF deputy chief implementer and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon. “This is a good metric to be added in our assessments in which areas are ready for alert level 1,” he added.

Alert level 1 means all establishments will be allowed to operate at full capacity while minimum public health standards such as the wearing of face masks must still be enforced. Galvez described the additional metric as the government’s “way forward.” “We will add this requirement to incentivize LGUs with higher vaccine coverage, so they could also be under alert level 1, just like in the NCR (National Capital Region),” Galvez added.

Focus on seniors

All LGUs in Metro Manila have vaccinated at least 70 percent of their target population, but no figures were available as to their coverage of senior residents. All the 17 mayors of Metro Manila agreed during their meeting on Tuesday night to recommend to the government’s pandemic task force to place NCR under alert level 1 starting March 1, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said on Wednesday. Based on Galvez’s presentation, more than 62.5 million or 56.7 percent of the country’s population have been fully vaccinated.

Booster administration has also been slow at only 9.7 million, despite shortening the interval to get booster jabs to one month after getting fully vaccinated due to the emergence of infectious COVID-19 variants. Galvez said the country has already reached the “saturation point or inflection point” of its vaccine coverage, making it more difficult for unvaccinated individuals to get their COVID-19 jabs. “From vaccination centers, we now need to go from barangay to barangay and house to house to increase our daily output,” he noted, adding that February’s daily vaccination rate has not reached 500,000, far from January’s one million average a day. According to Galvez, the national government will focus on the remaining three million senior citizens and people with comorbidities who remain unvaccinated.

The Department of Health (DOH) and the National Vaccination Operations Center deployed focal persons per region for LGUs to comply with the goal of vaccinating at least 70 percent of their population.

Source: inquirer.net