The Philippine National Police will be rolling out another round of vaccination expectedly on Monday, March 15, after securing 700 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
But Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, Officer-In-Charge of the PNP, said only 350 of their healthcare workers would be vaccinated since the other 350 doses are boosters, or the second doses to further boost immunity from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
"We will prioritize the remaining healthcare workers, including non-medical staff of our hospitals and isolation facilities But it will only be for those assigned here in National Capital Region due to the limited initial allocation," said Eleazar.
He said the first priority of the Astrazeneca vaccination are senior citizen-healthcare workers of the PNP with comorbidity while the second priority are the senior-citizen personnel healthcare workers.
Unlike the PNP uniformed personnel who are mandated to retire after reaching the age of 56, the retirement age of civilian employees of the PNP is 65. Some of them are working in the PNP Health Service.
Since there are only a few senior citizens in the PNP, Eleazar said they expect that there will be remaining AstraZeneca vaccines for the third priority which are the remaining healthcare workers, regardless of age, but with comorbidity.
"If there are still left, we will go to the fourth priority which is our healthcare workers who were not vaccinated by Sinovac," said Eleazar.