The government is expected to come out this month with the consolidated list of beneficiaries for the initial implementation of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccination drive.
The Department of Health (DOH) said it is now finalizing the list from both the national and local government, which will be inputted in their online database.
“We already have an existing registry for our health care workers (HCW), senior citizens, and indigent population…there are already different agencies, which have this although it is not complete yet,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press briefing on Tuesday.
She said they are now validating the list for HCWs, which is the first sector to be given the vaccine.
“Hopefully, before the end of January we have a complete database [for HCWs],” Vergeire said.
She noted this will be crucial to avoid “overlaps” since local government units (LGUs) will be implementing their own vaccination drive using their own funds.
Herd immunity
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles welcomed the said initiatives from the LGUs since it minimized the number of people the national government needs to inoculate using its budget.
Citing the computation of the Department of Finance (DOF), he said the national government will now only have to vaccinate 57 million people instead of its initial target of 70 million.
The vaccination of the remaining 13 million Filipinos will now be paid by LGUs.
Nograles explained they are aiming to immunize 70 percent of the country’s 104 million population to ensure they will have herd immunity.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines “herd immunity” as a “concept of vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached.”
Mandatory compliance
Philippine Foundation for Vaccination (PFV) Director Lulu Bravo voiced her concern over the vaccination drive of LGUs since they may give it to people not included in the priority list of the government.
“Our preparations will be for naught if each one will do it without regard [for national government priorities]. That is not good,” Bravo said.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque allayed the said concern stating the LGUs must sign an agreement, which will mandate them to align their vaccination priorities with that of the national government.
“So they need to comply with geographical and sectoral priorities,” Roque said.