Hey, poker playas!
Are you ready for the lockdown? it might end up being more than a month as today chaos erupted in the vaccine centers in Metro Manila.
Amidst the discovery of more than 100 people infected with the Delta variant. People flocked to the vaccination centers.
Some LGUs say the huge crowds stemmed from false information that unvaccinated people won’t qualify for ‘ayuda,’ or won’t be allowed to leave their homes at all
Multiple vaccination sites across the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby provinces grappled with an unprecedented turnout of people desperate to receive a COVID-19 jab a day before the hard lockdown in the region.
In some areas, the chaos resulted in massive failure to observe minimum health protocols, seen as crucial at a time when the COVID-19 Delta variant threatens to further undermine the Philippines’ road to economic recovery.
In Manila, police estimated that the turnout on early Thursday morning, August 5, could go as high as 22,000 across four malls operating as vaccination hubs. The huge crowds even forced the city government to halt inoculation operations at SM San Lazaro.
(Investigators found that there was an influx of people because they were afraid of the news that they won’t be allowed to leave their homes and would be arrested if they have not received a vaccine.)
For the record, President Rodrigo Duterte had said he wanted police and barangay captains to restrict the movement of people unwilling to get a COVID-19 jab. During ECQ, only authorized persons outside the residence can go out of their homes.
The Manila LGU said it was also surprised by the unusually high turnout in malls, with SM San Lazaro grappling with as many as 10,000 people before it halted operations.
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno suspects an “agitator” from another political camp may be behind the chaotic vaccinations in some of the capital’s vaccination sites today.
