Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has no problem with the non-announcement of COVID-19 vaccine brands to be used in inoculation centers in her city as she said "every vaccine is the same."
In a press conference Thursday, Belmonte assured her constituents there is nothing to worry about any vaccine's safety and effectiveness regardless of the brand, as all brands being administered in the country have already undergone approval from the Food and Drugs Administration.
"Whatever vaccine is offered to you in the site that you chose to go to, sana tanggapin na lang ho ninyo ang bakunang ‘yan (I hope you just accept it)," she said.
Belmonte made the remark after the Department of Interior and Local Government ordered LGUs not to announce the brand of vaccines to be administered in their areas. An individual who is scheduled for vaccination will only be informed of the brand on-site and must sign a consent to receive it.
Since the start of the rollout of the city's vaccination program, Belmonte said they never announced brand that would be administered in a certain site because the local government was aware of its constituents' vaccine preference.
"Ayaw po natin mangyari ‘yung nangyari po sa ating ilang mga kapatid na LGU kung saan nagdagsaan po ang mga tao kasi nabalitaan nila na there's a certain vaccine at a certain site and therefore nagkakagulo at nakoko-compromise po ang minimum health standards (We don't want to happen to us what happened in other local government units where people swarmed a certain site because there's a certain vaccine being given, which caused chaos and compromised the health standards)," she said.
"Sang ayon po ako doon sa binanggit po ng Pangulo na hindi na po kailangan... kung ano anong brand sa iba ibang vaccine site (I agree with what the President said that we don't need to have different brands in different sites)," she added.