MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health on Monday said it saw a decrease in the number of Filipino children who received routine immunization in 2020, citing factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many health workers who were supposed to be vaccinators were also unavailable after being tapped to help in the country's pandemic response, Vergeire added. Joining the forum was Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the World Health Organization's representative to the country. In other vaccination programs, Vergeire said 90.3% or 8.54 million children were inoculated against measles-rubella out of the targeted 9.46 million. "Vaccines that are used in routine immunization have been backed up with decades of research, and established system of delivery and monitoring."

Source: Philippine Star April 26, 2021 12:56 UTC