AS THE more contagious Delta variant sets off large outbreaks across the globe, local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines face a greater sense of urgency to vaccinate their constituents and build immunity against its spread.
Metro Manila LGUs have held up to their vaccination promises well, inching closer and closer to their vaccination targets each day. However, for those outside the capital region, vaccination still sits at disproportionately lower rates.
These unequal vaccination rates between Metro Manila and the rest of the country open the door to yet another devastating surge as the Delta variant ravages the Philippines. Ultimately, herd immunity in the Philippines is unattainable for as long as the Department of Health (DOH) does not accelerate mass vaccination nationwide, especially in areas where vaccines are scarce.
In the dark
Currently, data presented to the public fails to paint a clear picture of vaccination progress in the Philippines. No tracker consolidates and breaks down vaccination efforts throughout the country similar to the COVID-19 Dashboard available on the DOH website.
Instead, DOH releases vaccination bulletins through their official Facebook page. These were broken down per region until May 18, when they shifted to presenting data per category instead. This left the public to rely on bulletins from their local government units (LGUs) for updates specific to their area.
Constant updates from the LGUS in the National Capital Region (NCR) allowed external institutions to consolidate vaccination data in the area. Conversely, there are on-the-ground accounts of how citizens remain in the dark on the progress of vaccination in some provinces.
This is due to the national government’s strategy of prioritizing cities with high cases and high economic contribution, further exemplifying the government’s Metro Manila-centric conception of the pandemic.
To address this gap, the DOH must take steps towards presenting a consolidated account of vaccinations across the whole country breaking it down per region, not just Metro Manila.
A logistical nightmare
Aside from providing more transparent COVID-19 vaccination reports, the government must also address the logistical problems that hamper provincial LGUs’ inoculation efforts.
Before launching the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program, the DOH assured the public that the country has sufficient storage facilities for vaccines that need to be kept at 2°C to 8°C and -20°C temperatures. However, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire noted that five regions—three of which are in Mindanao—are still incapable of storing vaccines that require -80°C to -60°C storage temperatures to maintain efficacy.
This poses a serious stumbling block to the Philippines as it begins to distribute its largest vaccine shipment of 40 million Pfizer doses that must all be stored at -80°C to -60°C temperatures. Notably, this shipment is hailed as a solution to the supply issues that have slowed inoculation efforts—especially in far-flung provinces pummeled by COVID-19 cases. But now, Filipinos in these five regions must anxiously wait for LGUs to secure the proper facilities for their areas.
In the meantime, other regions that already have the necessary facilities stand by to receive their COVID-19 vaccines. However, the government has seemingly left them in the lurch, too, by continuing to distribute a large fraction of its vaccine supply among NCR LGUs and nearby provinces first.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque swiftly justified this prioritization scheme to “increasing cases” in these areas, as well as “being highly urbanized, having a dense environment, and their contribution to the regional and national economy.” But politicians refuse to accept this, asserting that regions far from NCR have also been languishing amid prolonged COVID-19 surges.
Thus, the divide persists—leaving countless Filipino communities vulnerable to Delta surges that will further devastate their already weakened healthcare system. Meanwhile, others’ livelihood is put on hold due to the ensuing lockdown.
If the DOH wants to hit its vaccination targets, it must act fast to address the yawning vaccination rift. It must accelerate its vaccination campaign to accomplish the 700,000 jabs per day that former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit recommended. Moreover, the national government must allocate more vaccines, manpower, and other necessary resources to LGUs that struggle to accomplish such large-scale vaccination programs.
The Philippines does not stand a chance of achieving herd immunity—and ending the pandemic at large—until the state presents a fuller picture of the vaccination program progress by contextualizing data per region. Additionally, the DOH must also pursue an accelerated and more equitable vaccination program in light of the Delta variant.
Until then, the widening rift in immunity between regions remains, and time is running out. With the Delta variant cases rising, the DOH risks erasing all strides that have been made towards pandemic recovery and further devastating a nation already battered by a year of lockdowns.
