PH to prioritize medical workers for COVAX vaccine doses this February, but no distribution plan yet

CNN – Published Feb 2, 2021 3:37:49 PM

Metro Manila — The Philippines will follow the recommendation of the World Health Organization to use the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine doses arriving this month to protect healthcare workers, officials said on Tuesday.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the vaccines that will be received by the Philippines by mid- to late-February will be given to healthcare workers. Next in the prioritization list will be other frontliners, such as workers who help drive the economy and government staff responding to the pandemic.

“Ang pinakauna na directive ng WHO na magbibigay sa atin ng COVAX, kailangan unahin natin ang preservation ng healthcare system… Ang instruction sa amin sa COVAX, sila ang uunahin natin, ang 1.9 million na ating health workers,” vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said in a media briefing.

[Translation: We were instructed to prioritize the 1.9 million health workers with the vaccines from COVAX.]

However, the vaccines arriving in the Philippines this month through the WHO-led COVAX facility will only be 117,000 doses, which can only protect 58,500 people as they need to receive two doses to fully protect them from the virus.

Testing czar Vince Dizon admitted that it will not be enough to cover all healthcare workers in the country. He said it is still unclear how they will choose the frontliners to receive the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech.

“This is obviously not enough to inoculate all our health care workers initially but it’s a start in February… We can say is that the first vaccinations are going to be so important. because the main challenge is really vaccination confidence,” he told CNN Philippines’ The Source.

The Philippines is expected to receive at least 5.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter of 2021 through the COVAX facility. The country may be able to access 5.5 million to up to 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines by late February or early March — if it soon receives the emergency use listing from the WHO.

WHO has committed to supply the Philippines with 44 million doses of vaccines for cover 20% of its population by the end of the year.

SOURCE: https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/2/2/COVAX-COVID-19-vaccines-healthcare-workers.html?fb