The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said it supports the prioritization of the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus 8 areas for the Covid-19 vaccination program following the directive of President Duterte.
This, as the country’s Covid-19 death toll already surpassed the 20,000 mark after recording 36 deaths as of 4 p.m. of May 25. The DOH also logged 3,972 additional cases, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 1,188,672. There were 4,659 recoveries.
The government is eyeing the NCR plus 8 areas which have been determined to be the most populous and of highest density, thus putting these at the greatest risk for Covid-19 transmission.
The NCR plus 8 areas are composed of NCR, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal. Based on the latest data, 67 percent of the vaccine supply is distributed to NCR, Regions 4A, III, VII, and XI.
Such risks, the DOH stressed, have economic and social implications, which are inherently tied to health and nutrition outcomes.
“The DOH further clarified that Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire’s statement was in response to the recommendation to allocate 90 percent of vaccines to the NCR Plus. This is not only impractical, but is also inappropriate and inequitable,” the DOH clarified.
The DOH added that there is a continuous need to allocate to other regions especially to cover the remaining A1, A2, and A3 population groups who have not been vaccinated, “consistent with the objective of reducing hospitalizations and deaths among high risk population groups.”
Aside from this, allocation remains to be dependent on incoming supplies, the DOH said.
The Philippines registered a daily average of 166,861 doses administered over a 7 day period last May 23, the highest since the start of the COVID-19 vaccination program. During the same period, a total of 3.2 million Filipinos have already been vaccinated with their 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine while around 960,000 have already received their 2nd dose.
The DOH also continuously reminded to the public to continue practicing the minimum public health standards even after getting fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the DOH said that of the total number of cases, 4.1 percent (48,201) are active, 94.3 percent (1,120,452) have recovered, and 1.68 percent (20,019) have died.
Moreover, 10 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
All laboratories were operational on May 23, 2021 but 10 were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
Based on data in the last 14 days, the 10 non-reporting labs contribute, on average, 3.2 percent of samples tested and 5.5 percent of positive individuals.
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