Philippines economic essential workers vaccinated in 2nd quarter -Galvez

The government is looking to vaccinate economic essential workers in the second quarter of 2021, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Monday night.

During a televised briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte, Galvez said economic frontliners were also among the government’s priorities in the COVID-19 immunization drive.

“Ang ginawa po kasi sa Indonesia to protect the economy, prinaiority po nila ‘yong essential workers so ‘yon po ang titingnan po natin,” Galvez said.

Galvez said Metro Manila mayors also recommended including the economic frontliners among the government's priorities for vaccination.

“Kasi nakita po natin na ‘yong mga driver sa food industry, sa social services, at the same time, ‘yong life support services, kailangan maproteksiyunan po natin sila,” Galvez said.

“Ito po mga mahihirap din po ito eh. ’Yon po ang recommendation ng ating mga communities and LGUs,” he added.

The Philippines has already allocated P73.2 billion for the procurement of the vaccines, with P40 billion coming from multilateral agencies, P20 billion from domestic sources, and P13.2 billion from bilateral agreements.

The country is looking to inoculate 50 to 70 million individuals within the year, and an estimated 50,000 is expected to be vaccinated in February.

The priority groups include frontline health workers, indigent senior citizens, the rest of the indigent population and uniformed personnel.

Galvez earlier said the vaccine manufactured by American corporation Pfizer could be the first that will be used against COVID-19 in the country as the COVAX Facility will have an early rollout of the said brand. -NB, GMA News