MANILA – The ongoing fight against the pandemic must be continued by the next administration as there is no reason to stop the gains made under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Presidential Adviser on Covid-19 Response, Secretary Vince Dizon, said it will be unthinkable to create a gap because the implementation of the prevention, detection, isolation, treatment, and integration (PDITR) strategies, has been proven effective.

“Tingin ko naman tuloy-tuloy kahit na sino pa ang papalit sa ating administrasyon (I think it will be continued by whoever will be in the next administration),” he said in a virtual interview with Undersecretary for Mass Media Rocky Ignacio on Friday.

“Iyong ating pagbabakuna at ang ating minimum public health standard. Iyon lang naman, paulit-ulit lang at pa-iigtingin lang natin ito (Our vaccination and the implementation of the minimum public health standard. We will just repeat and intensify this),” added the deputy chief of the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19.

He also repeated the call to avail of the vaccine against Covid-19.

“Ang paki-usap na lang ho namin lahat sa inyo, ibigay natin ang ating responsibilidad. Kailangang maging responsible tayo, magpabakuna na tayo (Our only request to you is to share responsibility. We need to become responsible, let’s get vaccinated),” he said.

Dizon noted the country has enough vaccine supplies until next year to include administering second doses and booster or additional shots which can fight off emerging variants like the Omicron.

Vaccination began in March and booster shots in November. (PNA)