Galvez: All health workers to get COVID-19 vaccines before next priority group

All of the country's health workers, from Luzon to Mindanao, will first be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the next set of individuals in the government's rungs of priorities would be inoculated, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. has said.

At a hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations, Galvez allayed fears raised by Bukidnon Representative Manuel Zubiri that the doses of COVID-19 vaccines would fail to reach frontliners in the Visayas and Mindanao.

"Ang ano naman po ng mahal na Presidente eh wala naman po tayong iiwanan at walang maiiwan na LGU. Actually po 'yung sa COVAX, tatapusin po muna nationwide lang po muna," Galvez said.

"Bago tayo magkaroon ng next priority, uubusin po muna lahat ng healthcare workers sa buong bansa," he added.

Zubiri expressed the fears of health workers in the Visayas and Mindanao because of the priority placed on front liners in the National Capital Region.

"'Yung request lang po namin sa Region X, saka doon sa Mindanao mismo because frontliners are afraid that of course NCR, since the majority of the pandemic is here in NCR, or Luzon," Zubiri said.

"Baka makalimutan po 'yung frontliners sa Mindanao... We want to make sure that we get the same vaccines that are equitable based on what is needed, especially sa provincial hospitals po namin," Zubiri said.

"Please don't forget us. We don't want to get left behind," he added.

Zubiri said healthcare workers in the regions south of Luzon were already getting sick.

Galvez said developing countries would obtain COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility and the limited procurement from multilateral resources.

He said majority of the vaccine supply had already been purchased by rich countries.

"There is really a problem on global supply considering that majority of the supply has been procured already by rich countries. Based on our data, more than 80% of the supply have been bought by rich countries," Galvez said.

The committee is holding the inquiry on the proposed measures which seeks to expedite the procurement and administration of COVID-19 vaccines.

Speaker Lord Allan Velasco has filed House Bill 8648, which aims to allow local government units to directly purchase from manufacturers without going through the long process of public bidding. -NB, GMA News