Duterte to take COVID-19 vaccine but inoculation won’t be televised —Palace

President Rodrigo Duterte will receive the COVID-19 vaccine but the inoculation will not be a televised ceremony, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. announced the President’s decision after the latter told the nation last week that frontliners and vulnerable sectors will get the first dibs on the potentially life-saving vaccines, adding he will be among the last to get it.

“His answer was, ‘No problem. I will take the vaccine as soon as it is available’ dahil siya nga raw po ay talagang kailangan niyang magkaroon ng bakuna,” Roque said at a news conference.

“Pero ang sabi niya hindi na kinakailangan ipakita ito sa publiko.”

Roque said Duterte, 75, would follow the example of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II whose vaccination was only announced after she and her husband Prince Philip had received their first shots.

US President-elect Joe Biden, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, are among the world leaders whose inoculations were made in public.

Duterte previously said he was willing to get inoculated in public and volunteered to get the first shot. He has repeatedly expressed confidence in the vaccines developed by China and Russia.

The Philippines is expected to receive its first delivery of vaccines, probably from China’s Sinovac and Pfizer, next month. -MDM, GMA News