Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Benhur Abalos Jr. said Wednesday that “express lanes” for those under the A1 to A3 vaccination priority group once the inoculation of the A4 group begins next month.
“There is one thing we could do and what we could do is have an express lane para ‘yung mga naiiwan [those who were not vaccinated yet], for example, you are a senior citizen, person with comorbidities, then you open now the A4,” Abalos said in an ANC interview.
So far, the MMDA chief said Metro Manila is administering 120,000 COVID-19 vaccines per day. He is also confident that the government will achieve herd immunity in the capital region by November.
“That is why the target in the Metro is November. If everyone is united, this is achievable,” he said.
Earlier, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked the government to start the COVID-19 vaccination of the general public or to “those who are willing” next month.
“We’re now in our third month of our vaccination program, and from my observation, it’s about time to move the general public up in the priority program as early as June,” Gatchalian said in an ANC interview.
“Express lane” for A1-A3 groups eyed once vaccination of A4 begins
“So meaning, allowing the general public, anyone who is willing to take their vaccine to be vaccinated as early as June,” he added.
Gatchalian cited a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, which showed only 32% of the Filipinos are willing to avail themselves of the vaccine.
He explained that the country expects to have 21 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by June, and this would be enough for the 32% who wanted to be inoculated against the virus.
“If you do the simple math, in NCR Plus, there are about 26 million in population, and the clincher here is the recent SWS survey where it said that only 32% want to be vaccinated. The vaccine acceptance rate is only 32%. So if you multiply it to 25 million by 32%, you get about 8 million,” he said.
“Eight million is less than the 21 million inventory. So we have more than enough to vaccine the willing people who want to be vaccinated,” he further explained.
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