NEWS | Gov’t eyes vaccination of 222,000 health workers, states no VIP treatment to public officials
By Elaine Diaz
With the official kick-off of the COVID-19 vaccination program last March 1, the government expects to inoculate more than 222, 000 healthcare workers within the next two weeks. Along with the arrival of 1.1 million doses of vaccine in the country, the government reiterates that no public official who is not on the priority list will be vaccinated.
Vaccination of healthcare workers
As of March 9, over 44, 000 vaccine doses have been administered in the Philippines since the launch of its immunization program. The 1.1 million doses comprises the 600, 000 Sinovac vaccines donated by the Chinese government and another 525, 600 AstraZeneca vaccines from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility. Along with the arrival of 1.1 million doses of vaccine in the country, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said that the government is eyeing to vaccinate all health workers in the country in the next two weeks.
“Now that we have both Sinovac and AstraZeneca, we’ll be able to complete these lists, names, healthcare workers who have been master listed whether or not they are senior citizens or younger,” he added.
No cutting of the line
Meanwhile, the WHO urged the Philippine government to carefully observe the priority list of vaccine recipients to ensure the continuous delivery and supply of COVID-19 vaccines from the global sharing pool.
Last March 1, Philippine General Hospital Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi received the first legal dose of the Sinovac vaccine administered in the country. However, several government officials and members of the Presidential Security Group, including former special envoy to China Ramon Tulfo Jr., used smuggled Sinopharm vaccines as early as last year.
Furthermore, the Malacañang recently admitted “breaches” in the vaccination protocols when public officials, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority public services head Michael Salima, received the vaccines despite not being on the priority list.
In line with these, Nograles promised that the vaccination of public officials who are not on the priority list will not happen again. Meanwhile, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque explained that the vaccination of the two officials is to boost public confidence, however, health workers remain to be the priority.
Vaccination prioritization list
To ensure the proper allocation of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) advised the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) released a prioritization list.
For the first phase of the immunization program, A1 or the frontline workers in health facilities, both national and local, private and public, health professionals and non-professionals, including students, nursing aides, janitors, barangay health workers, will be given priority. They are then followed by group A2 or senior citizens aged 60 years old and above, and A3 or persons with comorbidities not otherwise included in the preceding categories, and A4 or frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel and those in working sectors deemed as essential by the IATF during the ECQ. Lastly, A5 or indigent populations who were not included in the A1-A4 categories will also be vaccinated.
Teachers and social workers are then categorized as B1 and will be given priority in the second phase of the immunization program, followed by other government and essential workers, respectively referred to as B2 and B3. They are succeeded by category B4 which refers to the socio-demographic groups at significantly higher risk other than senior citizens and indigent people, followed by overseas Filipino workers (B5) and Filipinos in other remaining work sectors (B6).
After categories A and B are vaccinated, the immunization program will then cater to the rest of the Filipinos.
However, the IATF also stated that it would prioritize geographic areas that are ready to roll out vaccines and those with high transmission rates. The transmission rates consider the number of current active cases, attack rate per 100, 000 population in the past four weeks, and population density.
