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| Makati residents received the first dose of the Sinovac vaccine at the Makati Coliseum yesterday. (Photo from Krizjohn Rosales) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA — The country might only need to vaccinate 35 million Filipinos and not 70 million as generally held by experts to achieve herd immunity from COVID-19, the OCTA Research Group said yesterday as PhilStar reported.
“When you do an examination of the details, for example, there are certain regions that are not high-risk… They actually don’t need 70 percent to get herd immunity,” OCTA fellow Guido David said in an interview with “The Chiefs” on One News/TV 5 on Thursday night. “They just need 15 to 20 percent of their population vaccinated,” he added, referring to low-risk areas. Herd immunity refers to the protection developed by the population against an infectious disease following the vaccination or infection of a sizable amount of the general public.
Previous estimates said countries have to vaccinate 70 percent of their population to develop herd immunity. But David said they came up with the smaller target of 33 percent based on different factors such as having regions that have not experienced major COVID-19 outbreaks since the pandemic started. The focus, he said, should be on Metro Manila where most of the cases have been recorded.
