Tacloban mayor gets COVID-19 vaccine despite not being on priority list

Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez has drawn flak for getting a COVID-19 vaccine on Monday despite not being on the priority list, which puts frontline workers in healthcare facilities first in line for inoculation.

A Facebook post by the Tacloban City Information Office showed Romualdez smiling without a face mask on as he is vaccinated with China’s Sinovac jab by a Department of Health (DOH) nurse.

The city government said Romualdez got inoculated to boost public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines because “only 50% wanted to have themselves vaccinated.”

“Never say that I did it to save myself before others. I did it to make the people see that it was okay to get the vaccine. I wanted our people to take it for protection, and so that the efforts of the national government will not be in vain,” he was quoted as saying. 

In a statement released Tuesday, the Tacloban government stressed that Romualdez “did not bump off anyone in the order of priority to cause disadvantage to health workers since there was a resistance to inoculation with Sinovac and thusly, he was qualified to be vaccinated as an LGU official.” 

“All this much ado about something that was well-intentioned merely results in the breaking down of the confidence in the vaccination program,” it claimed.

DILG to probe

Also on Tuesday, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said he will refer the matter to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for investigation.

“Hindi po pupuwedeng magpabakuna muna ang hindi mga medical frontliners dahil kung susuway po tayo dito sa order of priority na ito, maaapektuhan po ‘yung ating future deliveries galing sa COVAX Facility,” he said in a briefing.

(Non-medical frontliners cannot get vaccinated yet. If we don’t obey this order of priority, our future deliveries from the COVAX Facility will be affected.)

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH has also referred the issue to the DILG.

The World Health Organization previously warned that the Philippines’ supply of doses from COVAX, a global initiative for equitable vaccine distribution, could be put at risk if the prioritization list is not followed. 

Although the Sinovac jabs were not donated by the COVAX Facility, DOH Disease Prevention and Control Bureau director Dr. Nikka Hao stressed that the priority list still needs to be strictly observed.

“Not doing such will risk us not getting future supplies not only from the COVAX Facility but even in our other engagements. It is all part of those agreements that we have to follow the national vaccine deployment plan and this is really because there is a global supply shortage,” she said in a virtual forum.

The agency has not responded to repeated requests for comment on why a DOH nurse administered a COVID-19 vaccine to a non-health worker.

Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega earlier admitted receiving reports of some individuals jumping the line for vaccination. 

Hao said that such incidents are investigated and reported to authorities.

“The accountability lies with the head of the institution,” she explained.

“So that means the head of the hospital, if it’s for the healthcare workers, or the local government, especially across its vaccination sites, they are to be made accountable for lapses with the prioritization framework.”

On March 4, Roque acknowledged that the priority list was breached by some officials' receiving Sinovac jabs despite not being health workers: DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, Michael Salalima of the MMDA Public Safety Office and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, and Quezon Representative and medical doctor Helen Tan.

“[We're  not perfect, there have been a few] breaches, but we have learned from these breaches,” Roque said back then.

The Philippines started its COVID-19 vaccination on March 1, the last to do so in Southeast Asia.

The country’s COVID-19 vaccine supply has been stuck at 1,125,600 doses since then. Of this number, 600,000 doses are from Sinovac which is donated by the Chinese government and 525,600 doses are AstraZeneca which was donated by the COVAX facility. — with Llanesca T. Panti/BM, GMA News