De Lima, in filing Senate Bill No. 1942 or the Libreng Bakuna Kontra COVID-19 Para sa Lahat ng Pilipino Act, reiterated the need to safeguard the health of Filipinos by allocating funds and mandating the country’s health system to offer the vaccines free of charge.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez had earlier said the government is targeting to vaccinate 60 to 70 percent of the country’s population, with elderly citizens, frontliners, and those included in the vulnerable sectors to be prioritized in the immunization program. De Lima, however, said this should not be an excuse for a delayed response in securing vaccine supplies since there are new suppliers of COVID-19 vaccines with equally good efficacy rates that have already emerged.
“A vaccination plan that is inclusive will be an instrument to create herd immunity in a country of more than 100 million.”