The Idea of “Alert Level 0” and Issue of Vaccine Wastage Tackled by President Duterte

The idea of putting the country in “Alert Level 0” — entailing the removal of all restrictions — was rejected by President Rodrigo Duterte during his weekly taped public address. Most areas are currently under Alert Level 1, considered to be the “new normal,” which enables establishments and public transportation to operate at full capacity.

“Lahat gusto balik na lahat sa [Alert Level] 0 o lahat 1. ‘Di puwede kasi may mga lugar na meron pa. Until such time na talagang almost isa o dalawang [cases] na lang all over the country, ‘yung Alert 1 would still be a good– parang buffer natin,” Duterte explained. He also noted that the virus could still evolve and, hence, another problem could emerge. (“Everyone wants the alert level down to 0 or 1, but that can’t be because other areas still have cases. Until such time that we only have one or two cases all over the country, Alert Level 1 would still be a good buffer.”)

Overall cases should be reduced to almost none before the transition to Alert Level 0 would be considered. It is highly likely that the country would remain under Alert Level 1 until the end of Duterte’s presidency on June 30, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier affirmed in March. Additionally, Duterte also touched on the issue of excess vaccines which are soon to expire, elaborating that the government may just move to donate the doses to other countries on top of a “last-minute house-to-house program.”

“Ang bakuna, nandiyan para sa lahat ng Pilipino, inorder natin ‘yan. Kung marami pa na ayaw magpabakuna, hindi naman kasalanan ng gobyerno na magbili tayo commensurate to the number of Filipinos that would be vaccinated sana,” he added. (“The vaccines are there for all Filipinos – we ordered that. If a lot of people refuse to be vaccinated, it’s not the government’s fault that we bought doses commensurate to the number of Filipinos that would be vaccinated ideally.”)

Despite this issue, Duque maintained that vaccine wastage in the country was still considerably low at 1.54%, or around 3.7 million doses. “We’re still okay. We can still do a lot of things for the 27 million doses that are set to expire in July,” he added. Mobile and house-to-house vaccination drives have been conducted by the Department of Health (DOH) in an effort to avoid wastage.

Special vaccination days are targeted to be rolled out in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), particularly since the area has a low inoculation rate, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. Of the country’s 110 million population, around 66 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated and 12 million have received a booster shot.

Source: Rappler