Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 5) — The Department of Health on Friday said hospitals and local government units will be required to come up with a list of back-up vaccine recipients to anticipate the possibility of Filipinos suddenly backing out or missing their immunization schedule.
Health Department spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said preparing the list and having an alternate on standby will prevent coronavirus vaccines from going to waste.
“Nangyayari po ito ngayon sa iba-ibang bansa na on the day itself, hindi nagsho-show up for the appointments or biglang umaatras ‘yung mga recipients. So kailangan, meron silang nakatalaga na mga alternative na mga recipients kung sakaling magkakaroon tayo ng pagtanggi during the vaccination day itself,” she said in a media briefing. “The government will not allow wastage for these very valuable technology or vaccine.”
[Translation: In other countries, some do not show up on the day of appointment or they suddenly back out. So they should assign an alternate if the original recipients back out on the day of vaccination.
The government issued a list of sectors to be prioritized for the vaccination program. Medical frontliners, professional and non-professional health workers, senior citizens, and people with co-morbidities will be first in line to get the vaccines.
Vergeire said the assigned alternates will still follow the priority list.
“Kung tumanggi ang isang kasama sa ospital, mayroon tayong ihahanda na next in line from the community who are also healthcare workers na dapat nakaabang na sila kung sakaling may tumanggi, sila ang bibigyan,” she added.
[Translation: If one hospital worker suddenly refuses to get vaccinated, we have someone in the community — who is also a healthcare worker. They should be on standby to receive the vaccines.]
The first batch of vaccine shipment is set to arrive in February through the COVAX facility led by the World Health Organization. WHO recommended using the first tranche of 117,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines on healthcare workers.
The Health Department said there are so far 116,000 healthcare workers in Metro Manila who are eligible to receive free vaccines from the government. DOH’s Dr. Nikka Hao of the COVID-19 Surveillance and Quick Action Unit, said this is an initial figure as the registration is ongoing.
The government is building a COVID-19 electronic immunization registry, where it will compile all the names of people eligible to receive the jabs. The priority are frontliners in COVID-19 referral hospitals. Next are those assigned in quarantine and isolation centers, and all other workers from public and private hospitals.
Vergeire said those in Metro Manila will be vaccinated first as the capital region remains to be the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yung ating burden of disease across different regions, NCR (National Capital Region) is the topmost. That’s why NCR was identified,” she said.
CNN Philippines correspondent Melissa Lopez contributed to this report.
