The Department of Health (DOH) is now finalizing the master list of first COVID-19 vaccine beneficiaries amid limited doses in the initial batch of vaccines.
The list is set to be completed before February 15 before the arrival of the first batch of vaccines from the COVAX facility of the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the first step of profiling includes identifying health and non-health workers in frontline health services which can be listed by their respective facilities.
“Second is ma-consolidate natin as a full data (The second step is to consolidate it as full data),” Vergeire added.
At least 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are expected to arrive this month.
Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said an additional 900,000 doses will be sought on February 14.
Around five million to nine million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are also expected to arrive between the first and second quarter once the product is granted emergency use listing (EUL) by the WHO.
The following are the priority eligible groups for the vaccines based on the data provided by the National Task Force on COVID-19:
First Priority: Frontline Health Workers — 1,762,994
Second Priority: Indigent Senior Citizens — 3,789,874
Third Priority: Remaining Senior Citizens — 5,678,544
Fourth Priority: Remaining Indigent Population — 12,911,193
Fifth Priority: Uniformed Personnel — 525,523
Total: 24,668,128
“Uunahin po natin ang apat na referral hospitals dito sa Metro Manila (We will prioritize four referral hospital in Metro Manila), itong (the) PGH, Lung Center, East Avenue, at Tala Hospital dito sa (in) Caloocan City,” Galvez cited.
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines require double dosing, with the former having a 21-day gap and the latter with one to three months.
The DOH is also welcoming studies on having a single dose for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson and Johnson.
Meanwhile, it was explained that vaccination is only an “add-on” factor when deciding on community restrictions. – Report from Mark Fetalco
