Daily Tribune (Philippines)

DU30 dares Leni: Be vaccinated first

She should be vaccinated first since she is in a hurry

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President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday dared Vice President Leni Rebredo to get vaccinated first against the coronaviru­s disease (Covid-19).

“She should be vaccinated first since she is in a hurry. I cannot just decide. She’s young, I am not. I have to defer to my doctors,” Duterte said in a press conference after personally witnessing the arrival of at least 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.

The President was responding to the statement made by Robredo after she challenged Duterte to be the first Filipino to be inoculated with Sinovac to boost public confidence on the vaccine.

“It’s just a matter of time in getting the vaccines, it is for my self-preservati­on. I need to be vaccinated. If I don’t want to die, I should get one, I go around allot, I meet so many people. The problem is I am still waiting for the go signal of my doctor,” Duterte added.

Pandemic is about to end

For his part, Presidenti­al spokespers­on Secretary Harry Roque said the whole country is rejoicing following the arrival of the vaccines from China.

“The pandemic is about to end with the arrival of the first batch of the vaccines in the country,” he added.

“We were all excited as the content of the aircraft serves as the hope as normalcy is expected to return in the lives of the people. This serves as hope and the light in our dark journey that lasted for almost one year now because of the lockdown and now there is light at the end of the tunnel, the vaccines,” Roque said.

According to him, the vaccinatio­n of health workers at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) will be shown to the public to encourage others to get the jab.

“I will be vaccinated at PGH, together with the doctors and other health workers,” he said.

Roque said the government hopes to vaccinate at least 50 million to 70 million Filipinos to achieve the target of herd immunity.

“While there is a delay in the arrival of the vaccine, we hope this will be the start of the mass vaccinatio­n program of the government so that we can go back to our normal lives,” he said.

 ?? PHOTOGRAPH BY ALFONSO PADILLA FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE @tribunephl_al ?? TRADITIONA­L net fishing has become the norm of some people residing near a bridge along Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque City.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALFONSO PADILLA FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE @tribunephl_al TRADITIONA­L net fishing has become the norm of some people residing near a bridge along Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque City.

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