Vaccination of health workers completed within a month — Palace

MANILA, Philippines — The inoculation of the Philippines' 1.4 million medical frontliners is expected to be completed within a month, Malacañang said Sunday.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said more than five million COVID-19 jabs acquired through the COVAX facility would be delivered this month. The first batch will consist of 117,000 jabs that will benefit more than 50,000 health workers since two shots will be given per person. Another five million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are also expected to arrive this month, Roque added.

"There's an estimate already (on how long the vaccination would take) but it will really be fast... We expect all priority frontliners, about 1.4 million, to receive vaccines because more than five million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive also within the month," Roque told radio station dzBB.  

"We expect that within this week, for the entire month, the vaccines doses will arrive and at least the vaccination of all medical frontliners and immediate priorities will start. But definitely, it won't take longer than a month. We can finish (the inoculation of) all medical frontliners," he added.

Roque said the giving of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to start on February 15. Lists containing the names of medical frontliners have been prepared, he added.

The Interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group recently released the list of priority population groups for vaccination. Frontline workers in health facilities, health professionals, and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, janitors, and barangay health workers make up the top priority group for vaccination. They are followed by senior citizens, persons with comorbidities or existing health problems, frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel, and those in working sectors identified as essential by the government's pandemic task force during the enforcement of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

The next to be inoculated are indigent population not included in the preceding categories, teachers and social workers, other government workers, other essential workers, socio-demographic groups at significantly higher risk other than senior citizens and indigenous people, overseas Filipino workers, other remaining workforce, and the rest of the Filipino population.

Roque revealed that there was a debate about the proposal to prioritize persons with health problems because of concerns that it may be used to cut through the line.

"I said let us trust our doctors who will issue certificate, that they will not lie. We have high respects for our doctors," the Palace spokesman said.

Roque said members of the media are considered workers in sectors identified as essential because they continued performing their functions even during the height of the lockdown. He noted that news outlets were among the entities allowed to operate while parts of the Philippines are under ECQ.