Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco has expressed concern over the national government's directive to administer the reserved second doses of COVID-19 vaccines to residents who have yet to receive their first shot.
Tiangco in a Twitter post said that as much as he wanted to reserve the city's existing Sinovac's CoronaVac doses for those who are set to complete their jab, he could not do so as they are mandated to administer them to those receiving the vaccine for the first time.
He said he has to comply as he fears of not getting new vaccine supply from the national government, he added.
"Sa atas po ng National Vaccination Operations Center, ang ilang CoronaVac na pang-2nd dose ay gagamitin na pang-1st dose. Mas gusto ko po sana na naka-reserba lahat ng 2nd dose na CoronaVac, kaya lang di tayo papadalhan ng dagdag na bakuna kung di tayo susunod. Kaya, no choice (As mandated by the National Vaccination Operations Center, some of our CoronaVac doses allotted for those getting the second dose, will be administered as first dose. I would prefer reserving them for those getting their second dose, but we might not get new supply next time if we wouldn't follow. So we have no choice)," he said.
This was the reason why the local government opened a first-dose vaccination for those belonging to A-1, A-2, A-3, and A-4 categories despite not having enough supply.
"Nakakakaba lang 'pag hindi naka-reserba sa amin ang 2nd dose (I'm just scared of not getting reservation for 2nd dose)," he added on Friday.
Tiangco assured those who are set to get their second dose before and on June 26 that they will complete their jab on time. The city's public information office said they have already reserved 5,524 vaccine doses for them.
"Para sa mga may 2nd dose pagkatapos ng petsang ito, may assurance naman po sila (national government) na papalitan nila 'yong pang-2nd dose na pinapagamit nila bilang 1st dose," the mayor added.
On Wednesday, the local government had to halt the vaccination of those under A-4 category or the economic frontliners as it ran out of vaccine supply.
Although on the same day it eventually received 1,600 vials of the vaccine.