Over 180k health workers, 1.4M seniors included in vaccine master list — DOH

More than 180,000 health workers and millions of senior citizens, indigents, and uniformed personnel have so far been included in the government’s vaccine master list, a health official said Wednesday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the following are in the Vaccine Information Management System of the Department of Information and Communications Technology as of February 16:

• 186,562 healthcare workers
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• more than 1.4 million senior citizens
• 3 million indigents
• 164,000 uniformed personnel

“Most of these healthcare workers would comprise those from the eligible hospitals na isasama natin as pauna nating pagbabakuna with Pfizer vaccines,” Vergeire said at the Laging Handa briefing.

The Department of Health earlier said 34 hospitals across Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao will be part of the initial rollout of 117,000 doses from Pfizer-BioNTech. 

However, Malacañang said there is still no definitive delivery date for the first batch of vaccines. 

The rollout was expected to begin in mid-February but was delayed by the country’s lack of an indemnification law, which will ensure compensation for those who will experience serious side effects from COVID-19 vaccines.  

The Philippines has tallied 552,246 confirmed cases with 511,796 recoveries and 11,524 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon. — RSJ, GMA News