Philippines expects Covid-19 herd immunity target to extend to January

A health worker inoculates a woman with China's Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccination center in Manila, Philippines, Tuesday, June 22, 2021. - AP

MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN): The country’s target of reaching herd immunity against the deadly Covid-19 disease may extend to January 2022 “at the most, ” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Friday (June 25).

Duque, however, said that “all these depends on the adequacy of the supply” although if 500, 000 people will be inoculated per day, vaccinating 70 million individuals for their first doses will only take 140 days.

It must be noted that some vaccines require a four-week interval between the first and second dose while AstraZeneca Covid-19 shots require an interval of 12 weeks.

To achieve herd immunity, around 70 per cent of the population should be vaccinated.

“So more or less you will finish around November to December. At the most it could extend to January. Again, all of these depends on the adequacy of the supply, ” Duque told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, adding that supply from some vaccine manufacturers faces delays due to logistical issues.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said the country may reach its benchmark for herd immunity with 58 to 70 million of the population receiving full doses by November.

Duque said the country is nearing its target of vaccinating 500, 000 people per day after it reached 350, 000 inoculations on Wednesday.

The country is expecting to receive over 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for the month of June and another 11.67 million doses in July

Galvez said 25 per cent of the incoming doses for the rest of the month will each go to Visayas and Mindanao.

While the country has yet to achieve herd immunity, Duque reiterated the government’s call on local government units to implement public health protocols and urged hospitals to continue converting isolation beds to intensive care unit beds to help save those with severe and critical cases of Covid-19.

“My only reminder to local governments, mayors and governors, is to ensure that we are not relaxing compliance to minimum public health protocols, ” he said.

“The problem is when other areas were downgraded to general community quarantine and modified GCQ, the people’s compliance to minimum public healths standards has eased. This fight depends on each Filipino. We are not defenseless here, ” he added. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network