Philippine officials to be punished for slow COVID-19 vaccination

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo: https://www.scmp.com/)

Hanoi (VNA) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on November 3 warned local officials that they will be punished if they fail to meet vaccination targets.

This statement came in the context the Philippines is seeking to re-open its economy.

The Philippines, one of the Asian countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, has so far fully immunized a little over a third of 77 million people eligible for shots.

Duterte said there was no reason why daily vaccinations could not be ramped up to at least a million from an average of 500,000 since the country has sufficient stock of vaccines.

The Philippine government is gradually easing restriction measures related to the health crisis.

On the same day, the country announced that it will lift the night curfew imposed in the capital region from November 4. To speed up the transport of vaccines, Duterte has ordered the police and military forces to use planes and helicopters to deliver vaccines to localities.

According to worldometers.info, as of the afternoon of November 3, the Philippines had counted a total of 2.79 million COVID-19 infections and 43,404 related deaths./.