THE Department of Health (DOH) on Friday, November 5, 2021, expressed support to proposals to make coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccination mandatory for particular sectors, saying it could be key to achieving herd immunity in the country.
In a virtual press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they are amenable to the proposal raised to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) as there are still selected groups that are hesitant to getting vaccinated.
“We cannot achieve population protection if some sectors will remain unvaccinated. One of the things we are looking at is to make it mandatory,” said Vergeire.
“If we will have this as mandatory for specific sectors only, the DOH will support this because we need this to achieve the population protection,” she added.
Vergeire said the proposal was raised in the IATF-EID meeting due to the failure of the current schemes to convince the public to get jabbed against Covid-19.
“We have done different methods, like encouragement, nudges, incentives, raffles, offered privileges, and also did house-to-house. But still, there remains this hesitancy,” said the health official.
She assured, however, that the proposal is still under thorough assessment, especially for its legal aspect.
“We will heed to the statement of the Department of Justice and Secretary (Menardo) Guevarra that it needs a law. The proposal is still being studied,” said Vergeire.
In the past, the DOH has said that it is the right of a person to decide on his/her own whether he/she will receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
Health officials have also said that their position is in accordance with that of the World Health Organization, which said vaccination should purely be voluntary. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)