Robredo asks: Can PH wait to get back to normal by 2023?

Vice President Leni Robredo is pushing for the faster rollout of the country’s coronavirus vaccination program to speed up the reopening of the economy. Robredo, an opposition leader, said the longer it takes for government to do this, the more difficult it will be for the lives of Filipinos.

“Bilis-bilisan natin itong vaccines. Bilisan natin dahil dito nakasalalay iyong reopening ng economy (Let us get the vaccines faster. We have to act faster because the reopening of the economy depends on it),” she said in an interview over GMA News program “The Mangahas Interviews” Wednesday, March 3.

Robredo lamented President Duterte’s previous pronouncement the Philippines may have to wait until 2023 before it can return to normalcy following the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine from China.

“Nakakatakot ito, kasi kakayanin ba nating maghintay until 2023, considering na ang dami na ngayong naghihirap? (This is scary, because can we wait until 2023, considering many are now suffering),” she said.

On Sunday, Feb. 28, the country received 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac—a donation from China—which formally started the government’s national vaccination program. Close to half a million doses of vaccines developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford are expected to arrive March 4 after it was postponed from March 1.

The Philippines was the last country in Southeast Asia to start inoculating its people with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Robredo cited a New York Times article that said the United States could return to normal before the end of 2021, with its government target to vaccinate all citizens by May.

“Pero tayo, wala tayong ganoon. Hindi nga natin alam iyong timetable. Hindi nga natin alam kung kailan ba dadating iyong mga bakuna (But us, we don’t have something like that. We don’t even know the timetable. We don’t know when the vaccine will arrive),” she said.

The vice president added that despite the arrival of the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine, it’s still not enough to attain herd immunity, which she cited, is key to economic recovery.

Herd immunity happens when the virus can’t spread in a community because it keeps on encountering people who are protected against the virus. It is estimated that the Philippines needs to inoculate some 75 to 80 percent of the population before herd immunity can be achieved.