The Department of Health (DoH) assured that only those in the list of priority individuals and areas will be given the COVID-19 vaccine.
It also assured that politicians who will be included in the list of vaccine recipients are only those covered by the criteria set by the department.
“We are very transparent on that. Nakalagay diyan sino mga priorities na dapat bakunahan. So ‘yan po susundin natin. We will be very transparent with this list. Kung sino dapat bigyan, then sila talaga bibigyan (It is stated there who should be the priorities for the vaccine. We will follow that. We will be very transparent with this list. We will only provide it to those who must be given),” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media forum Monday.
Public officials, on the other hand, will only be given the vaccine if they fall in the identified criteria, the Health Undersecretary noted, allaying fears that “VIP treatment” would happen.
“Kung merong mga officials na papasok diyan sa criteria na ‘yan, halimbawa elderly or kasama sa listahan, mabibigyan tayo (If there are officials who would fall in the given criteria, for example the elderly, they will be given the vaccine),” Vergeire said.
“I just like to also inform the public, ‘pag pumasok na manufacturer ng bakuna sa bansa, nabigyan ng rehistro, hindi lang naman sa public magiging available (when a registered manufacturer enters the country, it’s not only limited to the public), the private sector can also access these vaccines as long as they are registered,” she added.
The Health Undersecretary also noted that they are still finalizing the criteria for identifying areas and individuals to be included in the list of recipients.
“Until we can have a final list of vaccines we are going to procure, wala pa tayong maibibigay kung sino sino ang babakunahan (we can’t tell who will be vaccinated at this point),” Vergeire said.