With the Philippines’ COVID-19 vaccination program “picking up” pace this quarter, the country is now in a “good place” compared to certain other economies in the region struggling to ramp up their capacities to inoculate their populations against the deadly virus, a World Bank (WB) official has said.
In a recent meeting with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Victoria Kwakwa, the WB Regional Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific, expressed the hope that the pace of the Philippines’ vaccination rollout continues to enable it to achieve its target of immunizing 100 percent of its adult population this year.
“I think you are in a good place with your vaccination program and I hope it continues,” said Vice President Kwakwa during her virtual meeting with Secretary Dominguez.
Vice President Kwakwa expressed concern that with the deadlier COVID-19 Delta variant spreading across the globe, other countries in Asia may experience surges as they have either been late in procuring the vaccines or are slow in vaccinating their citizens.
Secretary Dominguez said that from a low of less than 3 million vaccine doses received by the Philippines in the first quarter of this year, this volume has since increased to some 25 million doses in the April-June period.
He informed Vice President Kwakwa that the much bigger delivery of about 70 million vaccine doses is expected this third quarter, and over 50 million doses in the last quarter of 2021.
All these procured vaccines are enough to inoculate more than 100 percent of the country’s population, he told the WB executive.
Secretary Dominguez also said the Philippines has been fast and efficient in vaccinating its citizens.
During the meeting, Vice President Kwakwa also thanked Secretary Dominguez, and other senior officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) for their strong collaboration with the WB, which has resulted in the Bank’s largest program this year for the Philippines, amounting to about US$3.1 billion.
Secretary Dominguez, in turn, thanked Vice President Kwakwa for leading WB’s initiatives to enhance its engagement with, and strengthen its support, for the Philippines. (DOF)