The Department of Health (DOH) said that only healthcare workers should be included in the “quick substitution list” for now since they are the top priority for the COVID-19 vaccination program.

“Your quick substitution list should include all healthcare workers and frontliners who are directly caring for our COVID-19 patients,” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing on Friday, March 26.

Before the official start of the country’s vaccination program, the DOH instructed vaccination sites to prepare a  list of substitutes in case a vaccinee fails to show up on his or her vaccination schedule.

“Kung sino ang malalapit sa inyo na mga private hospitals maybe or private clinics, isama nyo na diyan sa inyong pagbabakuna  (You must include maybe private hospitals or private clinics in your vaccination) but never did we say that we are going to go to the next sector,” said Vergeire.

“As long as there are still healthcare workers who are not vaccinated you are supposed to continue and look for them and vaccinate them,” she added.

Vergeire made the remark after Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez defended the inoculation of actor Mark Anthony Fernandez. Olivarez said that Fernandez did not skip the priority list as the latter was part of the substitution list and has comorbidities such as depression and hypertension.

“We also recognize that depression is a comorbidity. Ang depression ay hindi dapat pinagsasa-walang bahala (Depression should not be ignored),” said Vergeire.

“Although we recognized this as a comorbidity, but again as I have said hindi pa po tayo nandoon sa level ng sector na yun para bigyan sila ng bakunang ito (we are not yet at the level of that sector to give them this vaccine),” she added.

The national government has the authority to give instructions if vaccination sites can inoculate the next sector after the healthcare workers, said Vergeire.

“Marami pong mga detalye. Hindi sa kinokontrol natin ng husto. May mga detalye po ang bakuna na kailangan ibigay namin sa inyo as an advice kung ano pong klaseng bakuna ang kailangan ibigay sa senior citizen, anong klaseng bakuna ang kailangan ibigay sa (may) comorbidities. Naipagtala na ba natin at nakita na ang masterlist ng senior citizens at mga comorbidities dyan sa inyong lugar (There are many details. Not that we are controlling everything. There are details of the vaccine that we need to give you as advice on what kind of vaccine should be given to senior citizens, what kind of vaccine should be given to those (with) comorbidities. Have we recorded or have you seen the masterlist of senior citizens and comorbidities in your area?),” said Vergeire.

“So maraming preparation na kailangan gawin na kailangan pagtulungan natin. So kung mag-uunahan tayo sa mga ganito, magkakagulo po ang ating pagpapatupad at lalong mas maraming kababayan natin ang hindi makaka-receive nitong bakuna (So much preparation needs to be done that we need to work together. So if we get ahead of one another, the implementation of the vaccination will be disorganized),” she added.