Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26) — Only the names of healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients are allowed to be included in the COVID-19 vaccine substitution list until the sector most affected by the pandemic has been inoculated, the Health Department reiterated on Friday amid several reports of government officials and personalities jumping the line.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the protocol for the quick substitution list remains the same, adding local chief executives and health facilities have been properly briefed prior to the start of the immunization program on March 1.
“We also emphasized in this protocol na ang ating kasama sa [those included in the] quick substitution list would also be a part of our priority sector for now, which are the healthcare workers who are our frontliners,” she said in a media briefing.
Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez allowed actor Mark Anthony Fernandez to get a COVID-19 shot despite not being part of the vaccine priority list, arguing that the public figure has a comorbidity because of his depression and hypertension so he was part of the substitution group called in case someone scheduled to get vaccinated suddenly backs out.
Although Vergeire acknowledged that a person diagnosed with depression is considered as a person with comorbidity, the government is still completing the vaccination of all healthcare workers so they should be the ones protected first. In the vaccine priority list, healthcare workers come first, then senior citizens, then those with co-morbidities.
“Although we recognize this (depression) as a co-morbidity, hindi pa tayo nandoon sa level ng sector na iyon para bigyan sila ng bakunang ito,” the official said. “Never did we say that we are going to go to the next sector. Diyan sa quick substitution list protocol, nakalagay diyan that everybody will be informed and instructed when we are going to shift and go to the next sector already. Maliwanag iyan.”
[Translation: We are not yet in the sector of those with co-morbidities to give them the vaccine. In the protocol, it is stated that everybody will be informed if we are moving to the next sector. That is clear.]
Vergeire slammed those using the fear of vaccine wastage as an excuse to “justify” breaching the priority group. She said the mechanism for the substitution list was created to prevent just that. She said the list should contain the names of healthcare workers from nearby clinics or hospitals.
The Health Department, however, admitted that it is still looking for 600,000 healthcare workers who are not yet included in the masterlist for vaccination. This number includes private doctors, and those who are working in dialysis stations, dental clinics and chemotherapy clinic. Those medical frontliners need to be tracked down before the immunization can move to the next priority group.
