Brgy vaccination centers
A PLAN to mandate the establishment of village vaccination centers across the country reminds us that there is a need to inoculate everybody against the dreaded C0VID-19.
Knowing full well the continued threat posed by the virus, the government is on the right track in looking into the possibility of setting up inoculation centers in all barangays.
Proposed by the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), the plan, if it pushes through, is seen to speed up the achievement of “herd immunity” or “community immunity.”
“It’s good if there’s a directive…for each barangay to have at least a vaccination site that is near and accessible to their residents,” said Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
The directive ought to come from the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) under Secretaries Francisco Duque III and Ed Ańo, respectively.
Galvez, a former chief of staff of the powerful Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), is chief implementer of NTF, while Año sits as vice chairman of the task force.
Like Galvez, Año also used to head the AFP. He urged local chief executives and village officials to open their vaccination sites to residents from neighboring communities.
Of the 110 million Filipinos, only 46.59 million have been fully vaccinated. But the number is still short of the 54 million year-end target of 54 million fully inoculated Pinoys.
If the more than 42,000 barangays are not utilized as vaccination centers against the deadly virus, we may find it impossible to attain “herd immunity” early next year.
Without doubt, setting up barangay vaccination centers is a move in the right direction.
