Procuring enough COVID-19 vaccines is one thing, but getting these jabs to the people who need them the most is another issue entirely. At-risk individuals can’t get jabbed if they can’t get to a vaccination site in the first place.
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has come up with a solution thath we hope will eventually be implemented on a much larger scale: mobile vaccination centers.
With the help of UBE Express, the organization is now using buses as mobile vaccination sites that will drive around administering jabs to at-risk individuals below the poverty line. These same units were actually already used to vaccinate more than a million people against polio and measles-rubella in the country. Look:
These come equipped with customized interiors as well as mobile refrigerator units and vaccine cabinets. The PRC says these vehicles will bring vaccines right to people’s homes.
“Nagawa natin ito noong pagbabakuna kontra polio at measles. Magagawa din natin kontra COVID-19,” PRC chairman and Philippine senator Richard Gordon said in a statement.
Transportation to vaccine sites may not be much of an issue if you have a car, but for millions of Filipinos without access to a private vehicle, it’s a pretty big problem when you consider that our public transportation system still isn’t at full capacity. Think any more organizations or hospitals will turn to this strategy moving forward?
