Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday said the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 was studying a proposal to scrap the priority list for Covid-19 vaccines.
Galvez said the private sector proposed the idea with the goal of increasing the country’s vaccination numbers.
“Iyong first proposal nila is ‘yung ‘Vax to the Max.’ Ibig sabihin, kailangan po natin na talagang we have to vaccinate all the willings,” Galvez said in a televised meeting with President Duterte.
“Kumbaga sa ano hindi na po sequential, iwawiden na po natin ‘yung tinatawag nating ‘yung sinasabi niyo nga po kung sino po ang gustong magpa-vaccine ay magpabakuna na,” he added.
As of Oct. 20, a total of 91,548,620 Covid-19 vaccine doses have arrived in the Philippines.
The country is observing two priority lists in its Covid-19 vaccine distribution: its own and Covax’s.
Covax is a global initiative that has provided the Philippines with over 12 million vaccine doses. Covax’s priority list bypasses the country’s A4 group, which is composed of workers the Philippine government classifies as “essential.”
Both priority lists include the following: health workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), persons with co-morbidities (A3) and the indigent population, overseas Filipino workers and other workers (A5). John Ezekiel J. Hirro