NAIS ni House Ways and Means Committee chairman at Economic Stimulus and Recovery Cluster co-chair Joey Salceda na ibatay pa rin sa priority groups ang vaccination program sa mga kabataang may edad 12-17.

Sinabi ni Salceda na dapat nang ilatag ng National Task Froce on Covid19 ang polisiya sa pagbabakuna sa teenagers.

Ito ay matapos na aprubahan ng Food and Drugs Administration ang emergency use ng Moderna vaccine para sa mga kabataan.

Kasabay nito, iginiit ni Salceda na kailangan pa ring makamit ng bansa ang orihinal nitong target na bakunahan ang 50 porsiyento ng populasyon.

“We should nonetheless continue to aim to meet as much of the original target as possible. Our approach for choosing which 12-17 year olds to vaccine has to be risk-based. Do they live among frontliners? Do they have comorbidities? If not, we should allocate the vaccines to groups that are in greater need,” pagbibigay-diin ni Salceda.

Ayon pa sa kongresista, magpapatuloy ang pagtaas ng mga kaso subalit kung mapabibilis ang Covid19 vaccination rollout ay matutugunan ng gobyerno ang proteksiyon.

“Covid19 cases will continue to grow in cases, but the vaccines have given us the opportunity to try a zero-casualty approach. The numbers are clear that the vaccines save lives. But we need the vaccines in the first place, especially in the provinces,” paliwanag ni Salceda.

Sinabi pa ni Salceda na nangangailangan pa ang bansa ng isang milyong bakuna kada araw kung nais na maabot ang herd immunity sa Disyembre.

“That’s one million doses per day from now until we finish the target. It won’t be easy, especially since supply arrivals are currently slower than one million per day. If global supply chains continue to be tight, we’ll see a plateauing of our vaccination pace as we run out of stocks,” giit ng mambabatas.