WHILE monovalent COVID-19 vaccines are readily accessible to the general population, bivalent vaccines will be limited to priority sectors once the Department of Health (DOH) begins its rollout, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said yesterday.
She said a priority list of recipients will be necessary because of the limited number of bivalent vaccines that are coming to the Philippines. The list will also be based “on the number of doses that we will receive,” she said.
“If you can recall, when we started the vaccination in 2021, we were only able to give it to certain sectors. This time, we will again prioritize (certain sectors) in the beginning,” she said in a press conference.
“Definitely, we will come out with guidelines, which will be based on science and evidence and for the benefit of the Filipino people,” she added.
Late last year, the DOH said it was planning to make available bivalent COVID-19 vaccines in the country by the first quarter of 2023. It has since started negotiations with vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna.
Asked how government can acquire bivalent vaccines when the state of calamity due to COVID-19 expired on Dec. 31, 2022, Vergeire said the DOH will have to rely on the regular procurement system of government.
“Under the state of calamity, we don’t have to go through Republic Act 9184, since we can do emergency purchase. Now, we may have to go through RA 9184 or competitive bidding, although it also has a provision on negotiated procurement,” Vergeire said.
Vergeire said the DOH will base its priority list on recommendations of vaccine experts.
“They already have an initial recommendation on which sectors will first receive the bivalent vaccines, but we cannot disclose them now,” she said.
In early 2021, government adopted a priority list for COVID-19 vaccines when it started the rollout. Healthcare workers were the top priority, listed as A1, followed by senior citizens (A2), people with comorbidities (A3), economic frontliners (4), and indigent population (A5).
