Coronavirus: Duterte threatens to punish Philippine officials over slow vaccination roll-out

President Rodrigo Duterte is unhappy about the vaccine programme, with millions of doses unused because of logistical bottlenecks and hesitancy

Elsewhere, Singapore said Covid-19 curbs will not remain ‘static’ and South Korean teenagers are driving up infection rates

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he is not content with the country’s vaccination programme, and local officials who are not performing will be made accountable. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:00pm, 3 Nov 2021Updated: 9:48pm, 3 Nov 2021

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday that local government officials will be punished for falling behind their targets for Covid-19 vaccinations as the country seeks to open up the economy.

The Philippines, which has one of Asia’s worst coronavirus epidemics, has so far fully immunised a little over a third of 77 million people eligible for shots. But millions of vaccines remain unused as logistical bottlenecks and hesitancy slow inoculations.

Duterte said there was no reason why daily vaccinations could not be ramped up to at least a million from an average of 500,000 since the country has sufficient stock of vaccines.

“We saw fault lines in the overall picture of our vaccination programme. I am not contented,” Duterte said in a recorded address aired on Wednesday.

Duterte said local officials “who are not performing nor using the doses given to them in a most expeditious manner” would be sanctioned and made accountable. He did not spell out the penalties.

The government has been gradually easing Covid-19 curbs, and on Wednesday announced it was lifting the nightly curfew imposed in the capital region from Thursday.