BY GERARD NAVAL and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
AMID government efforts to immunize as many individuals as soon as possible, the World Health Organization yesterday the reminded the Philippines it still has not provided COVID-19 vaccines to all of its 1.7 million healthcare workers.
“The current surge demonstrates that we need to have HCWs (healthcare workers) fully protected so that they can care of the sick,” WHO Representative to the Philippines Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe said in a public briefing, reminding the government that HCWs are the topmost priority for the vaccines.
“About 63 percent of the HCWs have been protected. We are still short of protecting all HCWs,” he said.
Abeyasinghe issued the reminder after the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) recently ordered the simultaneous immunization of Priority Groups A1 (HCWs), A2 (senior citizens), and A3 (people with comorbidities) amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.
It also comes on the heels of the approval of the IATF-EID for the categories qualified under the A4 Priority Group or the essential frontline workers.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, concurrent IATF co-chairman, said vaccination of essential workers under the A4 category will start “probably mid-May to June” when more vaccines are expected to arrive in the country.
Under the government’s vaccine calendar, the country expects the delivery of the 4.194 million doses of purchased vaccines by May, 10.5 million doses in June, 13.5 million doses in July, and 15 to 20 million doses from August to December.
The Department of Health said the Philippines ranks third among 11 Southeast Asian countries in terms of COVID-19 doses administered.
Indonesia ranks first with at least 15.8 million followed by Singapore with 1.67 while the Philippines has about 1.5 million doses administered, it said.
But a look at the “Our World in Data” project of the University of Oxford shows the Philippines ranks only sixth in the region in terms of the percentage of the population vaccinated. Singapore ranks first with 20 percent, followed by Cambodia (7.7%), Indonesia (4%), Malaysia (2.2%), Myanmar (1.9%), and the Philippines (1%).
DOH data shows at least 1.3 Filipinos have received their first dose and 191,982 their second dose.
“About 76 percent of the jabs were given to HCWS, 10 percent for seniors, and 14 percent to individuals with comorbidities,” said Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje in a briefing.
In all, the DOH said the country has acquired 3,025,600 doses composed of donated and procured Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The A4 category includes workers in the commuter transport (land, air, and sea), including logistics; public and private wet and dry market vendors; frontline workers in groceries, supermarkets, delivery services; workers in manufacturing for food, beverage, medical and pharmaceutical products; frontline workers in food retail, including food service delivery; frontline workers in private and government financial services; and frontline workers in hotels and accommodation establishments.
Also in the A4 group are priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders; security guards/ personnel assigned in offices, agencies, and organizations identified in the list of priority industries/sectors; frontline workers in private and government news media; customer-facing personnel of telecoms, cable and internet service providers, electricity distribution and water distribution utilities; frontline personnel in basic education and higher education institutions and agencies; and overseas Filipino workers, including those scheduled for deployment within two months.
The list also include frontline workers in law/justice, security, and social protection sectors; frontline government workers engaged in the operations of government transport system, quarantine inspection; worker safety inspection and other COVID-19 response activities; frontline government workers in charge of tax collection, assessment of businesses for incentives, election, national ID, data collection personnel; diplomatic community and Department of Foreign Affairs personnel in consular operations; and the Department of Public Works and Highways personnel in charge of monitoring government infrastructure projects.
