Parañaque starts vaccinating senior citizens vs. COVID-19

The city of Parañaque on Friday started vaccinating its senior citizens against COVID-19.

In a Facebook post, the city's Public Information Office said the senior citizens were being inoculated at the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Barangay Don Bosco, along with the remaining frontliners, Barangay Health Workers, dentists that have yet to be vaccinated.

Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez and Parañaque Rep. Eric Olivarez visited the vaccination facility on Friday to personally inspect and monitor the on-going vaccine roll-out.

Olivarez was among the mayors recently tagged in the vaccine line-jumping controversy over the inoculation of actor Mark Anthony Fernandez.

President Rodrigo Duterte alluded to Fernandez in his public address Wednesday night.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government earlier said a court will issue a show cause order on Olivarez.

“It was mentioned by the President last night so we will send him a show cause order to explain. It’s command responsibility,” DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said in an recent interview on “Dobol B TV.”

Olivarez earlier told GMA News Online that Fernandez received the jab because he was a substitute on standby, and that almost all the frontline healthcare workers in the city had already received the vaccine.

Around 90 to 95 percent of frontliners in the city have already been inoculated, the mayor said.

“Meron tayong substitution list na nagpupunta doon, nagwo-walk in doon ... Kapag hindi dumating ang frontliner sayang ang vaccine"(We have people on the substitution list. They were at the vaccination site, walk-in. If the frontliner did not come, the dose will be wasted), Olivarez said over the phone.

On Fernandez's case, the Parañaque mayor said the actor has comorbidities - hypertension and depression - citing information from the screening conducted by the city health office.

Based on the prioritization list set by the national government, the vaccination rollout in the country will start with frontline health workers, followed by indigent senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, remaining senior citizens, remaining indigent population, and uniformed personnel. -MDM, GMA News