The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) tapped the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to assist the Department of Health (DOH) and local government units (LGUs) in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to provinces.
“Given the President’s directive, our ultimate goal is to ensure that the vaccines reach local governments as quickly as possible in good condition and that these vaccines are immediately utilized for inoculation,” DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said in a statement on Wednesday.
Año said the speedy delivery of vaccines is significant in achieving 4 million vaccinations by the end of June.
“I’ve directed the PNP to secure these vaccines every step of the way and to ensure its fast delivery,” he said.
“In NCR, we strive to reach 120,000 jabs a day. This May, our target is 2M vaccinations. This June, our target is 4M vaccinations, so we really need not only to ramp up the vaccination efforts in LGUs but also to ensure that more vaccines reach more provinces to meet our overall target,” he added.
PNP, BFP to oversee COVID-19 vaccines delivery to provinces
Año emphasized that the DILG would closely monitor the delivery of the vaccines.
“In coordination with the DOH, we will closely monitor the performance of the LGUs, and we will require daily reports from them to ensure that they are meeting their targets,” he said.
The DILG chief also required LGUs to report their transportation mechanism for the vaccines and safe handling to prevent wastage of any vaccine.
“We cannot afford to waste any COVID-19 vaccine, given how precious these are, so I am counting on our PNP and BFP personnel to assist our LGUs in the safe and fast delivery of vaccines in various parts of the country,” he said.
DILG reported that 7,149,020 out of 7,779,050 COVID-19 vaccine doses were already distributed to vaccination centers nationwide as of last Monday.
“Of these, 3,001,875 vaccine doses have been administered; 2,282,273 were given as a first dose while 719,602 doses were used for the second dose.” the DILG added.
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