Manila to prioritize health workers in Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccinations

The Manila city government said it will prioritize health workers in its vaccinations using the initial doses of Sputnik V, which arrived in the city this Monday.

The local government announced that the 3,000 Sputnik V doses were shipped to Manila and were immediately stored in a COVID-19 facility at Sta. Ana Hospital.

"Priority dito sa ating mga medical frontliners. 'Yung mga nasa A1 category na hindi pa nakapagpabakuna," Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno' Domagoso said in a statement.

(Our priority is the medical frontliners. Those in the A1 category who are not yet vaccinated.)

According to the national government's priority list, the A1 category includes frontline workers in health facilities both national and local, private and public, health professionals and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, janitors, and barangay health workers, among others.

The city health department will coordinate with the city's district hospitals to determine the number of medical workers who will get the Sputnik V doses, Moreno said.

However, if there are still more Sputnik V doses, these would be made available for those in the A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons aged 18 to 59 with comorbidities) categories.

The 15,000 doses of Sputnik V procured by the national government were finally delivered on Saturday after logistical concerns caused delivery delays. The government distributed 3,000 shots each in Makati, Taguig, Muntinlupa, Manila, and Parañaque.

The Muntinlupa government meanwhile also announced that they received the 3,000 COVID-19 jabs made by Russia's Gamaleya Institute.

The Makati government for their part announced that the Sputnik V jabs arrived at the Makati Coliseum for the inoculation of their residents.

Taguig also received their Sputnik V doses, which were placed at the city's Orca Cold Storage Facility.

The Taguig City governemts said it would use the Russian-made vaccines to inoculate senior citizens and persons with comorbidities. — DVM, GMA News