The government pandemic task force is expected to craft a policy on the vaccination of foreigners staying in the country against the new coronavirus disease.

According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, it is important to have a policy on the vaccination of all people in the country for protection against the infectious disease. He said the coronavirus could affect anybody, adding it knows no ethnicity or nationality.

"Wala pa po tayong ganiyang polisiya pero inaasahan ko po na bubuo rin po ng ganiyang polisiya ang IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) kasi nga po iyong anyo ng COVID ay wala namang kinikilala iyan na nasyonalidad o kasarian o kulay ‘no. Pare-pareho po basta tao ay hinahawa niya (We don't have a policy on that yet but I expect the IATF will craft such policy because COVID knows no nationality, gender or color. Any person can be infected)," Roque said during a televised press briefing Monday, Feb. 22 when asked if the government will give free vaccines to foreigners in the country.

"So importante rin po na magkaroon talaga ng polisiya na lahat ng tao sa Pilipinas ay mabigyan po ng bakuna (It is important to really have a policy in which all people in the Philippines must be given vaccines)," he said.

Roque made the statement ahead of the highly anticipated arrival of the first batch of coronavirus vaccines in the country.

The country's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the vaccines developed by China's Sinovac for emergency use for healthy persons aged 18 to 59 in the country. The FDA approval paves the way for the delivery of 600,000 doses donated by China in the coming days.
China earlier opted to wait for the local regulatory approval before sending the vaccines to the Philippines.

With COVID-19 vaccine orders placed with various manufacturers, the government aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year to help attain herd immunity. The government's priority beneficiaries include frontline health workers, senior citizens, poor and vulnerable citizens, and economic frontliners.