Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on June 21 threatened to jail those who refuse COVID-19 vaccines as the country is struggling with one of the most serious COVID-19 waves in Asia with more than 1.3 million infections and over 23,000 deaths.

“If you’re a person who’s not vaccinated and a potential carrier, to protect the people, I have to sequester you in jail,” said the President after learning that the number of people going to vaccination facilities in Manila was low.

As of June 20, the Philippines had administered COVID-19 vaccines for 2.1 million people, far below its target of giving vaccination to 70 million people out of 110 million population in the country this year.

In a bid to encourage people to get COVID-19 vaccines, the country has given a number of initiatives, including giving each people 25kg of rice after receiving COVID-19 vaccine shots.

Twenty weekly winners who get their shots in Sucat on the outskirts of the capital Manila have been taking home a 25kg sack of rice each.

Local official Jeramel Mendoza said the initiative was targeting mainly poorer residents who were not so keen on vaccinations.

Sucat village officials said since starting the initiative at end-May, they have been administering their daily quota of vaccines of up to 2,000 doses, whereas before they were giving only about 400 doses a day.

The Philippines has ordered 113 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from five producers.

Source: VNA