Half of Pinoy survey respondents say COVID-19 vaccination rollout 'slow'

MANILA (UPDATED)- Almost a third of Filipinos do not have access to COVID-19 vaccination sites, with a half of survey respondents lamenting the government's slow inoculation pace, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll revealed on Tuesday.

According to SWS, while a majority or 68 percent of adult Filipinos have "easy" access to COVID-19 vaccination sites, 29 percent said these centers are inaccessible to them.

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Three percent of respondents, meanwhile, said they could access vaccination sites but it is "difficult." The survey did not elaborate the difficulties.

Most of the respondents who have easy access to inoculation centers are mostly from Metro Manila with 83 percent.

The region is followed by Mindanao (71 percent), Visayas (67 percent, and Balance Luzon (62 percent), according to SWS.

Balance Luzon, meanwhile, topped the areas in the country with the least accessible vaccination site at 35 percent. This is followed by the Visayas (29 percent), Mindanao (26 percent) and the capital region, at 16 percent.

SWS said the poll, which was conducted from June 23 to June 26, involved 1,200 adults who were interviewed face-to-face.

It was not commissioned.

SLOW VACCINATION PACE

Around 50 percent of Filipinos, on the other hand, said the vaccination rollout in the country is still slow, more than 6 months since it began.

According to SWS, those who thought that the country's immunization pace is slow were mostly in Metro Manila at 57 percent, followed by Balance Luzon (55 percent), Visayas (51 percent), and Mindanao (33 percent)

Those who think the country's vaccination pace is "alright" were mostly from Mindanao at 63 percent, followed by Visayas at 44 percent.

Balance Luzon and Metro Manila respondents were tied at 38 percent each when it came to the issue.

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Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez on Wednesday admitted that due to the supply of vaccines then in June, the pace of vaccination was still slow.

"Kasi kung wala talaga vaccine, wala ka talagang i-rollout. If you will have a survey this August, it will be significantly increased, considering na nakita natin tumaas ang July supply natin na-double iyon na naging 16 (million), and now we are expecting 22 (million)," he said.

"And noong time na iyon 139,000 (jabs) a day lang tayo. Ngayon nagkakaroon na tayo ng 720,000 or 710,000 per day," Galvez added.

He thanked the SWS for setting a benchmark for the performance of the country's vaccination program.

The government started its COVID-19 immunization program in March, using mostly donated COVID-19 vaccine doses from the UN-led COVAX Facility and other countries.

Government data collected by the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group showed Philippine authorities have so far administered 28.3 million virus doses, of which over 15.5 million are first shots.

A total of 12.7 million people, meanwhile, have been fully vaccinated against the disease.

The A3 priority sector, or people with comorbidities, is the group that has the most number of individuals fully vaccinated so far, according to the health department.

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