Meanwhile, regional officials are also asking the national government to give them more vaccines so that their local immunization programs can also make headway.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 17) — Local officials will move to top priority in the COVID-19 vaccination list due to the nature of their work, a Health official said on Monday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Inter-Agency Task Force included mayors and governors in the A1 group, which was originally for health care workers.
“Ang local chief executives, governors, mayors from cities, and municipal mayors are frequently exposed to COVID because they are part of the response team, sila ang umiikot sa barangay para macheck kung maayos ang response natin sa pandemyang ito [They constantly go around to check pandemic response],” she said in a media briefing.
A number of mayors were issued show cause orders at the onset of the national vaccination program in March for supposedly breaching the priority line. They were eventually moved up to fourth in line with other essential economic workers.
Vergeire, however, said the violation should not be linked to the new rule because of successive vaccine deliveries in the past weeks.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Final Word, League of Provinces of the Philippines President Presbitero Velasco said they are waiting for the decision of the country’s top officials regarding their appeal.
“That is very different, because during that time nang tayo ay nagbabakuna ng healthcare workers, kakaunti lang talaga doses ng bakuna at gustong gusto talaga mabigyan muna lahat ng healthcare workers kaya po di muna tayo nagsama ng ibang priority sectors,” the health official said. “Pero ngayon na ang bakuna natin ay medyo sufficient na ay maari na tayo magbakuna ng ibang prayoridad din at frequently exposed na populasyon.”
[Translation: This is very different because the time we were vaccinating healthcare workers, supply was scarce. We wanted to vaccinate them first so we did not include other priority sectors. Now that the supply is slightly sufficient, we can vaccinate other priority sectors and those who are exposed.]
Vergeire said the vaccination program will soon expand to the A4 and A5 groups.
The country has received a total of 7.7 million doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines. Over 2.5 million shotswere administered, while only 20% or 514,655 completed their vaccination.
Amid challenges in securing supplies, the Marinduque governor said areas under modified general community quarantine should be given more allocation after sufficient vaccines are given to priority areas, specifically those previously under modified enhanced community quarantine, “so that our goal to attain the herd immunity will also see light.”
CNN Philippines correspondent Carolyn Bonquin contributed to this report.
In their jurisdictions, he said they were able to inoculate around 6,500 people through some 17,800 doses of AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines they had received. He added that the need for more COVID-19 doses is urgent given their rising infection rate and an indication that many of their residents are willing to receive their vaccine.
“What we do is we just await the allocation of vaccines that are assigned to us. Definitely we want more than what they are giving us right now,” he said.
