By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos
MANILA – Malacañang on Friday appealed to senior citizens, including those who have already been inoculated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), to stay as “home-liners” amid the prevailing pandemic.
This, after lawyer Romulo Macalintal urged the government to give fully-vaccinated senior citizens “special privilege” to go out and enjoy more freedom.
During the “Laging Handa” press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said people aged 65 and above should stay home for now to protect themselves against COVID-19 since many of them also have comorbidities.
“Hindi po natin masasabi dahil karamihan ng seniors, meron ding comorbidities. So, kinakailangang pag-ingatan pa rin po. Sa ngayon po, let us become home-liners, mga senior (We could not predict what will happen to seniors because many of them have comorbidities. So, they still need to be careful. For now, to seniors, let us become home-liners),” Roque said.
Macalintal, in an interview with One News’ Agenda on Wednesday, said senior citizens who are completely vaccinated against COVID-19 should be allowed to leave their residence, so long as they continue to follow the health protocols.
He said fully-vaccinated senior citizens should be given the special privilege to dine in any restaurants to encourage more old people to receive COVID-19 vaccine jabs.
Not a ‘100%’ guarantee
Roque, however, said getting inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine is not tantamount to having a “100 percent” guarantee that you will not be infected with the coronavirus.
“Ang problema po, ang vaccination, hindi po iyan ’100 percent’ guarantee. Guarantee lang po iyan na hindi ma-ospital o hindi mamamatay dahil sa COVID-19 (The problem with the vaccination is it is not a ‘100 percent’ guarantee. That is just a guarantee that you will not be hospitalized or die because of COVID-19),” he said.
Roque said senior citizens are the “most susceptible” to COVID-19 infection.
“Alam niyo po, pinagbawal lang po natin ang presensya ng seniors [in malls] kasi sila po ‘yung pinaka-susceptible na mamatay dahil sa COVID-19. Tried and tested na po iyan (You know, we have prohibited the seniors’ presence in malls because they are the most susceptible to dying of COVID-19. That’s already tried and tested),” he said.
He, nevertheless, said the government would look into Macalintal’s proposal, once all senior citizens get completely immunized against COVID-19.
Pfizer vax
Meantime, Roque said the interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (iNITAG) and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) have yet to act on the proposal to administer American-made Pfizer vaccine jabs among teenagers.
“Wala pa pong desisyon ang iNITAG at ang IATF tungkol diyan (The iNITAG and IATF have no decision yet regarding that),” he said.
The inoculation of Pfizer vaccines among individuals aged 12 to 15 has been recently approved in the United States.
For now, medical front-liners, senior citizens, people with comorbidities, and indigents are the target recipients of Pfizer vaccines, Roque said.
About 69 percent of 193,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine that arrived in the country on May 10 have been allocated in Metro Manila. (PNA)-rir
