DOH: Teachers won't be tapped to give out COVID-19 shots
MANILA, Philippines — Teachers will not be asked to administer COVID-19 vaccines once the country begins the inoculation program this year, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
Instead, educators could be tapped to help in disseminating information on COVID-19 vaccines and the government’s immunization program.
“Teachers will not administer vaccines. If we ask for their help, they can be part of teams for information dissemination, and mobilizing and engaging communities. But nothing is final yet. It is only one of the recommendations,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
The DOH is also looking at deploying pharmacists and midwives as vaccinators. So far, only physicians and doctors are allowed to administer vaccines.
Pharmacists are authorized to vaccinate, provided they will undergo trainings on the safe administration of shots and management of adverse event following immunization.
Midwives are also allowed to administer vaccines, especially in the DOH’s national immunization program.
Vergeire said they will hold meetings with pharmacists and midwives to discuss their possible roles in the vaccination program.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez earlier told ABS-CBN News Channel that some 25,000 vaccinators are already being trained.
The government had already identified a total of 4,512 fixed vaccination sites, with each center aiming to immunize 300 people a day.
The target is to vaccinate 50 to 70 million Filipinos against COVID-19 in 2021 alone with the first shots expected to arrive as early as February.
With over 505,000 COVID-19 cases and 10,000 deaths, the Philippines has the second worst coronavirus outbreak in Southeast Asia.
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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