50,000 vaccines in PH by February

Medical frontliners on top of inoculation priority list

- GENALYN KABILING

The initial 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses expected to arrive next month will “all go to health workers,” Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Tuesday.

At present, frontline health workers are first on the government's list of the beneficiaries of the free COVID19 vaccines, followed by seniors, poor citizens, and uniformed personnel. The first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccines is expected to arrive next month.

“Ang initial agreement po ‘no – although, hindi pa po ito in the form of a resolution – ay uubusin ang lahat ng health workers muna sa Pilipinas before we move on to the next sector (The initial agreement, although it has not been in the form of a resolution, is to inoculate all health workers in the Philippines before we move on to the next sector),” he said.

To properly identify the beneficiaries, Roque said the government will use the existing databases, including those related to seniors and poor citizens. He noted that local government units have the list of seniors in their jurisdictions as well as those poor beneficiaries of the social amelioration program.