THE Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) yesterday approved the inclusion of all local chief executives such as governors and city and municipal mayors in Priority Group A 1.5 of the national vaccination program against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The local government chiefs are originally under the A4 category.
The IATF, in resolution 115-B dated May 17, said the inclusion of the local government officials in the A1 category — which refers to health workers and medical frontliners – is regardless of the risk classification of their respective local government units (LGUs).
In the past, only mayors and governors in critical or high-risk areas were included in the vaccine priority list.
Presidential and IATF spokesman Harry Roque said in a briefing the local executives were included in the A 1.5 category — or next to the health workers and higher than the senior citizens in the vaccination list — because they are also frontliners.
The IATF resolution said the inclusion of all local chef executives was endorsed by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, and requested by the League of Provinces of the Philippines.
It added that the inclusion of the local officials is part of the “continued implementation of proactive measures and restrictions must be put in place to slow down the surge in COVID-19 cases, stop further spread of variants, buy time for the health system to cope, and to protect more lives.”
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said defended the IATF decision.
“The governors, the mayors of cities and municipalities are also frequently exposed to COVID-19 because they are part of the response teams,” she said. “They are the ones going around in the barangays to check of the response to the pandemic is adequate.”
Roque said that as of May 15, 2.9 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, with 2.4 million receiving the first dose.
The government aims to vaccinate 50 million to 70 million Filipinos by the end of the year.
Roque said the government is also eyeing the continuation of the vaccination of the A4 group, or the government economic frontliners, and the A5 group or indigent sector either “possibly a bit earlier.” The government inoculated 8,955 economic and government frontline workers and overseas Filipino workers on May 1 to commemorate Labor Day.
Roque said vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca that the country received through the COVAX Facility will be used for the A5 group while vaccines purchased by the government will be used on the A4 group.
The country has received some 2.56 million doses of AstraZeneca and 193,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines from COVAX, and is expected to receive 2.2 million doses of Pfizer vaccines this month.
Vergeire advised those outside the priority groups against going to vaccination centers.
“When you go to vaccination centers but you are not among those scheduled, you are just exposing yourself to many people who may carry the risk of getting the virus,” she said.
She said it would not be long before other sectors will be inoculated.
“As you can see, we already have a lot of vaccines arriving in the country. We will eventually reach that point that we can vaccinate the other sectors as well,” she said.
