The Department of Health (DOH) has directed the local government units to prepare an alternative list of recipients to prevent wastage in case any of the pre-registrants decide to withdraw on the day of the vaccination.
“Alam po natin lahat that there is this vaccine hesistancy. Alam po natin ang realidad na nangyayari po ito ngayon sa iba’t ibang bansa na on the day itself na hindi nagsho-show up for the appointments or biglang umaatras ang mga recipients,” said Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire.
The government is continuously encouraging individuals from the priority sector to register in order to achieve the target number for the initial vaccine rollout.
“Within the hospitals they are still in the process of going through each of their staff to find kung sino ang mga may co- morbidities, sino iyong mga may exclusions and they should be submitting especially those maybe in the priority facilities,” noted DR Nikka Hao, the Deputy officer of the COVID-19 Surveillance and Quick Action Unit.
Authorities target to complete the final list of medical frontliners for the initial vaccination on February 15.
Around 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive mid-February while the government is still waiting for the initial volume coming from AstraZeneca.
All these vaccines will come from the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX Facility which will be distributed first in major hospitals in Metro Manila. MNP (with reports from Aiko Miguel)
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