SOME 5,000 workers, including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), will receive COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday as part of Labor Day celebrations.
In a briefing, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said 3,000 OFWs and 2,000 minimum wage earners who will be inoculated as part of the Priority Group A4 or the frontline personnel in essential sectors.
“This is a symbolism of our concern to our workers, including OFWs. We are now finalizing the list of the workers who will given this vaccine,” said Bello.
He said the vaccination of local and overseas workers will also serve as the start of the inoculation of the whole A4 priority group.
Asked how will the workers to be inoculated on Labor Day will be selected, Bello said the labor department has conducted consultations with various sectors, particularly the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration, and OFW groups for the OFW sector, while labor unions, employers, and government agencies were asked for their position on local workers.
“We are finalizing the list today, and we will submit it to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases and they will screen the recipients,” he said.
Currently, the government is vaccinating those in priority groups A1 (health workers), A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (with comorbidities) of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Plan.
Presidential spokesman harry Roque said the government is eyeing the start of the inoculation of those belonging to the A4 category or essential workers or economic frontliners next month with the “symbolic inoculation ceremony of minimum wage workers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)” on Labor Day.
He said the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF) on Tuesday approved the request of the Department of Labor and Employment for the allocation and use of 5,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the minimum wage workers and OFWs under Priority Group A4.
Some 3.53 million doses have arrived in the country since late February. At least 1.8 million doses have been administered as of April 27.
The Department of Health also said 3.03 million doses have been distributed to the 3,415 vaccination sites nationwide.
The government was expecting the delivery yesterday of “15,000 pilot run doses” of the vaccine Sputnik V from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute, but it was postponed because of “logistical challenges” like lack of direct flights between Russia and the Philippines and the need for a -18 to -20 temperature storage facility, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., also chief implementer of the National Task Force against the coronavirus disease (NTF-COVID 19).
“We will update the public as soon as we receive advice from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) regarding the final delivery date of the initial doses of Sputnik V,” Galvez said.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said delivery was moved to next month but did not say if the 15,000 doses would be delivered with the rest of the 485,000 doses procured from Gamaleya due for April, and 2 million doses due for delivery in May.
Due to the temperature sensitivity of the Russian vaccine, the government planned to use the Sputnik V in Metro Manila and other highly urban cities where there are storage facilities that provide up to -20 degrees Celsius in temperature storage.
Vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech and the British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca Plc, which are being used in the national vaccination program, require only 2 to 8 degrees temperature storage.
MANDATORY VACCINATION
Roque reiterated that making vaccination mandatory is not feasible because of insufficient vaccine supply.
There are delays in the delivery of vaccines, such as those donated under the World Health Organization-backed COVAX Facility due to global supply issues.
Some vaccine-producing countries have also halted the delivery of vaccines either due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in their countries or their goal of inoculating all, if not the majority, of their citizens first.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire asked the public to get their vaccines only from “official vaccination sites as these are the ones accredited and inspected by the government as meeting the standards on what vaccination sites should be.”
She also said unauthorized vaccination centers could be using unsafe and ineffective vaccines.
The reminder comes amid reports that individuals and groups are conducting private immunization drives.
RAMADAN VACCINATION
An officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) said Filipino Muslims may receive the COVID-19 vaccine even while fasting during Ramadan.
“We have an advisory from our Mufti (Islamic jurist) allowing vaccination, saying one who is fasting or observing the Ramadan can get inoculated and his fasting will not be affected,” said BARMM Health Minister Dr. Bashary Latiph in a briefing.
He also said approved COVID-19 vaccines are not prohibited for Muslims as they are considered “halal.”
“It is acceptable as they are not considered haram. They are halal vaccines, particularly these two brands we are using, Sinovac and AstraZeneca,” said Latiph.
He said the clarification was issued in response to inquiries on the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccines among Filipino Muslims.
“Of course there is still resistance, not just here in BARMM,” said Latiph.
So far, he said, they have already inoculated 12,337 individuals in the BARMM area, most of them healthcare workers.
“We appeal to our people in BARMM to stop worrying and get inoculated already as this will have positive effects to our body, especially in this time of pandemic,” said Latiph. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
