Health worker families not a priority in initial vaccine rollout –DOH

Families of health workers were not among those who would receive vaccines against COVID-19 during the initial rollout, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

“No, they are not eligible,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online briefing.

Vergeire emphasized that the government's priority was to vaccinate the health workers.

“Yung pong mga pamilya ng ating mga healthcare workers dadating po tayo doon sa punto kung papasok sila doon sa ibang [priority] sektor mabibigyan sila or kung hindi kaya, rest of the population,” she said.

The Philippines now has 1.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines — 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by China and 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca from the COVAX facility.

Vergeire said the current supply of vaccines was not enough to cover the 1.8 million health workers across the country. Both the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines required two doses for maximum protection against COVID-19.

“Nandito pa lang po tayo doon sa matataas na level ng ospital, hindi pa po natin nabibigyan yung ibang mga ospital. Hindi pa rin po natin nabibigyan yung ating mga community healthcare workers,” she added.

More than 29,000 Filipinos have been vaccinated against COVID-19 since the Philippines began its inoculation program on March 1, according to DOH data. — DVM, GMA News