BY GERARD NAVAL and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
ASIDE from those accompanying senior citizens to vaccination areas, companions of some individuals belonging to the A3 priority group (persons with comorbidities) of the national vaccination program will also be allowed to get inoculated against COVID-19, the Department of Health said yesterday.
“We have adopted this as a national policy. It’s the A2 (seniors) plus 1 and the A3 plus 1 policy,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a forum.
Vergeire said not all members of the A3 group will be allowed to have a “plus 1.”
“Only those in immunocompromised stages, such as those undergoing chemotherapy, had organ transplant, and others that are very weak and in need of assistance, are allowed (the plus 1),” she said.
Earlier, the DOH announced the “A2 plus 1” policy wherein senior citizens and their companions will be vaccinated together. The move aims to further encourage senior citizens to get inoculated.
Based on the latest national vaccination statistics, at least 3.4 million seniors have been fully vaccinated, or have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. About 747,500 seniors are partially inoculated.
As for the A3 group, about 4.7 million are fully vaccinated and 1.6 million partially vaccinated.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar and chief of the National Task Force against COVID-19 Carlito Galvez said some vaccine manufacturers are either not accepting orders for now or have limited their dealings with national governments amid the demand for vaccines.
Galvez issued the statement after Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri on Tuesday asked the Senate Committee on the Whole to investigate delays in the signing of multi-party agreements (MPAs) for vaccine procurement of some local government units and private companies.
Galvez said some MPAs have not been signed or put on hold because they either have yet to secure an emergency use authority (EUA) or an approval from the Health Technology Assessment Council.
Galvez said Moderna and AstraZeneca are currently not accepting vaccine orders through MPAs while Sinovac, Pfizer and Sputnik V prefer to prioritize orders of the national government, given current supply constraints. He said Johnson & Johnson is currently not open for MPAs.
He said Novavax has yet to receive an EUA from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has yet to secure approval from the Health Technology Assessment Council and the Philippine government is concerned about “potential overpricing issues on the aforesaid vaccine.”
