MANILA – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered military and police to airlift Covid-19 vaccines across the country’s provinces to bypass “gridlocks” in jab distribution that he blamed on local governments.
While nearly 90% of adults in the capital region are fully vaccinated, only about 35% of adults in the country have had both jabs.
“(Supplies) will no longer pass through the provincial government because that would be another gridlock,” Duterte said in a meeting with pandemic advisers that was broadcast today.
Duterte has leaned heavily on the armed services to fight the pandemic. They enforce one of the world’s most severe lockdowns, and transport medical supplies across the country and internationally.
“Upon delivery by plane and arrival at the (vaccine operations centre), the helicopters there will take over. They will be the ones to take them to municipal governments,” the president said.
“The armed forces have the lift capability,” military spokesman Col Ramon Zagala said today.
At the same meeting, Carlito Galvez – head of the country’s Covid-19 task force – acknowledged that local governments need to “boost their capacity” to inject more people per day, as well as to “procure their own cold chain system” to store more vaccines.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque told Duterte that coronavirus cases are on a “downward trend” across the country after a September peak.
The government eased some pandemic restrictions in October – opening cinemas and gyms in the capital, and allowing higher capacities at restaurants and on public transport.
The government today rolled out vaccines for 12.7 million youth aged 12-17. – AFP, November 3, 2021
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