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Vaccination to start with health workers in COVID-19 referral hospitals —Galvez
By JOVILAND RITA,GMA NewsVaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday said that healthcare workers in COVID-19 referral hospitals will be the first recipients of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Unang-una po, ang i-aano natin 'yung mga tinatawag nating COVID-referral hospitals, 'yung mga public hospitals,” Galvez said in a Palace briefing.
“At the same time, ‘yung mga malalaking hospitals na talagang maraming pasyente na mga COVID,” he added.
Since the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines may come from Pfizer that requires an ultra low temperature cold storage, Galvez noted that these will be initially distributed to areas in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao where such facilities are available.
Galvez said he had a meeting with Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje on Monday where a list of these hospitals was presented.
He said the inoculation rollout against COVID-19 is expected to start by February.
The Philippines will receive at least 5.6 million doses
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According to him, the country will receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as well as 5.5 million to 9.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab in mid- to late February.
Galvez clarified that over 3 million doses only will arrive in the first quarter under the COVAX facility because only 35% of the supply from AstraZeneca will initially arrive during the period.
“Kinompyut po namin 'yung more or less 35% percent ng AstraZeneca ay darating po more or less 3 million ang darating from COVAX facility this coming first quarter,” he said.
The COVID-19 response chief implementer noted that they will prioritize all healthcare workers in the vaccination.
“Talaga pong uubusin natin 'yung healthcare workers ang population niyan is 1.7 (million) so we will dedicate more than 3 million,” he said.
Interviewed on CNN Philippines, deputy chief implementer on COVID-19 response Vince Dizon said that the inoculation of healthcare workers will boost the confidence of the public with the vaccines.
“We don't have those details yet as to who or where. But what we can say is that the first vaccinations are going to be so important because the main challenge really is vaccination confidence,” he said.
“As we roll out this February, showing that our healthcare workers are the ones that will initially receive these I think will boost confidence tremendously,” he added.—AOL, GMA News