Health frontliners who commited “human errors” while administering a coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine jab will not be penalized, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.
However, if the mistakes were deliberate, the health workers involved will be punished, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
“We do not intend to penalize anybody. We are investigating incidents to improve our protocols in the coming days,” Vergeire said in Filipino during a briefing.
“If it was intentional, we will penalize them. But we can see these lapses in the process were not done with ill intentions,” she said.
Videos showing medical workers who failed to press the plungers and transfer the contents of the syringe after inserting the needles into the arms of vaccine recipients recently trended on social media
The Health Department conducted re-orientation of health workers on vaccine administration protocols. The agency also recommended that vaccinators should only work for eight hours to minimize fatigue and prevent mistakes.
Vergeire also encouraged vaccinators to show the syringe used in the vaccination to ensure that the people are vaccinated properly.
“If vaccination sites want to show the syringe before and after the vaccination process, we will support that,” she said.
Over 2.52 million Filipinos so far have been fully vaccinated since March, with 7.53 million receiving their first jab. Ronald Espartinez