If only there was a way to track where the 600,000 vaccine doses that are arriving today will go. You know that feature in some delivery apps that shows you where your rider is in real time? Imagine something similar, which would let you see where the vials get delivered, stored, and (quickly, one hopes) administered.
It’s not an impossible thing to do, but tagging each batch of these donated Sinovac vaccines would only delay an already delayed rollout in the Philippines. Our options as citizens are few, although we are not helpless. We can watch closely, stay masked and practice safety protocols while we wait, and ask for transparency.
In a nation where numbers games have long flourished, the most important numbers to watch these days are the number of Covid-19 vaccines scheduled to arrive in the country and the number of individuals who get jabbed. There are other numbers, of course, but they’re a lot more painful to track.
For example, there is a limit to the number of healthcare workers who can leave this country each year to work in Germany and the United Kingdom. The limit is 5,000 per country. Last Monday, however, a labor department official said that the agency was open to lifting this limit, in exchange for 600,000 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. These would in turn be given to Filipinos who used to work abroad but have been sent home during the pandemic. Once vaccinated, their chances of finding work abroad again would rise—and so would the hopes of their families and of economic managers, who know all too well how much the country depends on remittances.
Here’s another number that hits closer to home. Last Friday, a Department of Health official in Central Visayas told the Regional Development Council that the agency’s target was to vaccinate 5,634,789 individuals in Central Visayas, SunStar Cebu reported.
If they hit that target, about 76 percent of the region’s total population would be covered, which would be very reassuring. It’s not clear what the other 24 percent is supposed to do. Are they not part of the target population to be vaccinated, or would they have to depend on their own resources or on their local government?
Of course, numbers alone won’t tell the whole story. Twenty-nine years ago, the Philippines began an ambitious experiment to try to answer this question: Would the quality of public healthcare services get better if we gave local governments greater responsibility over them? One might say this pandemic has given us the opportunity to face that question as a community again.
It was not a full transfer, this grand experiment of devolution. Barangays became responsible for health centers. Municipalities had to take charge of primary, maternal and child health care services, as well as “disease control services.” To provinces went the responsibility of running hospitals and other tertiary health services. Cities had to run all the services and facilities similar to what got devolved to municipalities and provinces.
The national Department of Health (DOH) held on to special and regional hospitals, like the perennially overworked and overextended Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City. DOH also continues to set standards, regulate, implement health infrastructure projects funded by the national government. It is also mandated to help local governments and civil society organizations run programs to prevent and control diseases.
A few local governments have shown they have the will to use whatever resources they have—pooling their own funds with private sector expertise—to get the vaccines their people need.
Iloilo City has allocated P200 million for its vaccination program, which will cover 300,000 residents, as well as non-residents who work in the city. Rappler has reported that Iloilo also secured a deal with AstraZeneca.
Bacolod City has paid P31 million in advance for vaccines from AstraZeneca and will cover nearly 500,000 residents, the Inquirer reported. It will ask for support from the national government to cover part of its vaccine supply. The City had a vaccination council in place before Christmas last year.
Beyond the numbers, there are stories to tell about the foresight and effectiveness of some local governments; of the way they’ve prioritized public health exactly when their constituents needed them to do so. May they continue to have the strength, support and good sense on which their people’s hopes and health rest.