MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday ordered vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez to start distributing vaccines to various provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao to fast track the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the country.
In a recorded public address, Duterte said the government should also start rolling out vaccines in the Visayas and Mindanao.
"I'm directing Secretary Galvez to make a distribution, parang pro rata. Hindi naman lahat, pero mabigyan 'yung iba, starting, Iloilo, Zamboanga, Cagayan, Butuan, mabigyan lahat...Surigao, then you go up to Leyte, Samar. Paghati-hatian natin ito, tutal most of the, the bulk of the people in NCR, mayroon na ho silang bakuna. 'Pag dating noong sunod na marami, eh you divide it amongst the local government units. Sana magawa ito sa madaling panahon," he said.
(I am directing Secretary Galvez to make a pro rata distribution. Not to all, but at least we can give to some [provinces] like Iloilo, Zamboanga, Cagayan, Butuan, so we can distibute to all... Surigao, then you go up to Leyte and Samar. Let us divide this among ourselves, since most of the, bulk of the people in NCR have already been vaccinated. When the bulk of the vaccine supply arrives, you divide it amongst the local government units. I hope we can do this as soon as possible.)
Duterte also reiterated his call to the public to have themselves vaccinated with the vaccines already available in the country.
"We urge all of you to get vaccinated with the vaccines available to us right now, because we want you, your families and your communities to be safe from the virus. This is malasakit (compassion)," he said.
The Philippines expects to receive at least 3.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in June, Malacañang said earlier.
The country has already received some 8.329 million COVID-19 shots, of which around 5.120 million have been administered, as of May 29. Sinovac jabs account for the bulk of this supply.
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