Duterte: Philippines May Be Back To Normal By 2023
DUTERTE – President Rodrigo Duterte said that the Philippines may have to wait until 2023 until it can be back to normal.
![President Duterte, PNP-PDEA Misencounter](https://philnews.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/President-Duterte-1.jpg)
According to a report from Inquirer, Duterte made the statement after the Philippines received its shipment of 600,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccines that were donated by the Chinese government.
The president added that the government will accelerate its COVID-19 immunization program.
“In about maybe early year 2023, not 2022. Ito ngayon hanggang katapusan ng buwan, paspasan tayo,”
He made this statement in a press conference after the turnover ceremony of the SINOVAC vaccines at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.
“Early in the first, maybe the first or second quarter of year 2023, baka, sa tulong ng Diyos,”
The vaccines arrived on Sunday. With its arrival, the first shots are expected to be administered in several hospitals in the capital by Monday, March 1.
The president, said that the country is expected to achieve herd immunity against the disease in early 2022. However, he admitted that he has an “incomplete and inadequate knowledge” of the matter.
Based on the report, the country may have difficulty in achieving herd immunity due to its archipelagic geography and the hesitancy of some Filipinos to get vaccinated.
“Para sa akin personally mas maganda kung contiguous ang territory because you only have to do a circle, paliit nang paliit, paliit nang paliit hanggang — towards the center of gravity. Eh ito island per island eh. And we cannot stop travel. And we cannot expect all people to agree to be vaccinated. That is the problem,”
“We have to take into account the freedom of an individual of what happens to his body. Nobody but nobody can tinker with his — the human life kung hindi siya. Kung ayaw niya, that makes it doubly hard for us,”
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