SENATOR Richard Gordon on Monday urged the government to train high school and college graduates in Covid19 vaccine inoculation to speed up the Philippines’ mass vaccination efforts.

Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, outlined different ways that the government can bolster the Covid19 vaccination program which include training non-healthcare workers.

“Medics in the Armed Forces of the Philippines can be trained in one week — why not high school and college graduates, with the supervision of medical personnel?” he asked.

“If we vaccinate 240,000 Filipinos per day, it will take one and a half years to vaccinate 70 million people. Right now, we are only doing 60,000 people a day,” Gordon lamented.

He also proposed other ways to streamline the vaccination process, including removing blood pressure taking and the online completion of the pre-screening questionnaire to avoid overcrowding in vaccination centers.

Meanwhile, the senator confirmed that the PRC had partially inoculated 3,090 persons and fully vaccinated 255 others with its AstraZeneca and CoronaVac supply.

The PRC is also set to inoculate personnel in its 103 chapters nationwide its receipt of Moderna Covid19 vaccines in Q3 2021.