A total of 961 Local Government Units (LGUs) have already complied with the order to submit the master list of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccine beneficiaries, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) reported to President Duterte.
DILG officer-in-charge (OIC) Bernardo Florece Jr. said that they also ordered the LGUs to make the appropriate preparations ahead of the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines in their respective areas.
"A total of 939 LGUs, on the other hand, have provided the department with their communication plans, specifically viable information on the government's vaccination drive," said Florece.
In the approved COVID-19 vaccination priority list by the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group and the Department of Health-Technical Advisory Group, the inoculation priority list comes in this order:
A1: Front-line workers in health facilities both national and local, private and public, health professionals and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, janitors, barangay health workers, and members of the barangay emergency response team;
A2: Senior citizens aged 60 years old and above;
A3: Persons with comorbidities not otherwise included in the preceding categories;
A4: Essential front-line personnel including uniformed personnel and those in working sectors identified by the Inter-Agency Task Force as essential during Enhanced Community Quarantine;
A5: Indigent population not otherwise included in the preceding categories.
“So as far as the master listing of health human resources, the doctors, nurses, midwives, they have already been completed. We have 961 LGUs that have their respective master lists. Then we followed the master list of the senior citizens and then the indigents and informal settlers, as per your order, Mr. President,” Florence said.
The DILG OIC also noted that 748 LGUs have prepared 1,543 cold-chain storage facilities while 898 LGUs have complied with logistical preparations such as converting buses and other transport resources to vaccination sites.
“We also require them to convert their Emergency Operations Center (EOC) from Covid-19 EOC to a vaccine EOC and last, the mobilization on the preparation of our barangay personnel which will assist our barangay officials, especially the barangay tanods (village watchmen) and then the BHERTs or the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams, so 893 LGUs have already complied with this measure,” Florece said.
After issuing show-cause-orders to the mayors for skipping the line of the COVID-19 vaccine priority list, DILG Undersecretary for operations Epimaco Densing III said that the World Health Organization (WHO) warned the Philippines is in danger of losing its COVID-19 vaccines to other poor countries it would receive through the WHO-led Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility if the priority list are not followed.
“I won't make conclusions for now. Let's wait for the official response. But one thing is clear, we will follow the priority listing of the World Health Organization (WHO) because the vaccines, especially those from AstraZeneca are from the COVAX facility and were given to use for free," Densing said.
The mayors who initially were issued show-cause-orders by the DILG for jumping the line of COVID-19 vaccination priority list were Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban City, Leyte; Dibu Tuan of T'boli, South Cotabato; Sulpicio Villalobos of Sto. Niño town, South Cotabato; Noel Rosal of Legazpi City, Albay and Abraham Ibba of Bataraza, Palawan.