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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider DOH says COVID-19 vaccination should be voluntary

DOH says COVID-19 vaccination should be voluntary

Published Apr 26, 2021 07:46 pm

For the Department of Health, COVID-19 vaccination should be voluntary.

DOH/MB

"We adhere to the WHO (World Health Organization) and SAGE (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts) recommendations that this should be purely voluntary. It is the right of a person to decide if he shall receive or will not receive the vaccine," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual forum Monday, April 26.

"At this stage or this period of the case, where the vaccines are still at developmental stage, we cannot mandate people to accept this vaccine because this is still not really completed yet," she added.

"The principle we adhere is the benefits outweight the risks. That’s why we are offering it to our population. But it will be their right to decide if they will accept (the vaccine) or not," said Vergeire.

But, she said, there is also that moral obligation to be vaccinated.

"There is what we call moral obligation to be vaccinated, wherein we don't consider only ourselves but our loved ones,the community, the whole population because we want to achieve herd immunity," said Vergeire.

House Bill No. 9252 of Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. seeks to make it mandatory for each individual to be given COVID-19 shots.

Meanwhile, the DOH said four local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila are set to receive the initial doses of Sputnik V vaccines.

Vergeire said the four LGUs will participate in the simulation on the handling, transportation, storage, and use of the vaccines.

She said the simulation is necessary since the requirements of Sputnik V are different from Sinovac and AstraZeneca.

The DOH said about 15,000 doses will be used for simulation in the four NCR LGUs.

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