Mayors, guvs now in ‘A1.5’ priority for Covid-19 vaccination

MAYORS AND  governors have moved further up on the government’s Covid-19 vaccine priority list. 

This, after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), through Resolution No. 115-B, approved the inclusion of all governors and city and municipal mayors under the priority group A1.5, regardless of the risk classification of their respective local government units (LGUs).

The LGU leaders were previously under the A4 category on the vaccine priority list.

The country has around 1,634 provincial governors and city and municipal mayors.

The country's 1.7 million healthcare workers make up the A1 category while senior citizens and persons with comorbidities are part of A2 and A3 categories, respectively.

To date, the Philippines has administered a total of 2,959,829 Covid-19 vaccine doses.

Of this number, 2,245,397 have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 714,432 have received their second dose.

The country now has four brands of Covid-19 vaccines in its inventory -- Sinovac’s CoronaVac (China), AstraZeneca (UK), Sputnik V (Russia), and Pfizer (US).

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque emphasized the need to move mayors and governors up on the vaccine priority list because they are primarily in charge of prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate (PDITR) measures to slow down Covid-19 infections.

“Sila po ang nagpapatupad ng localized lockdown, vaccination. Sila po talaga ang ating instrumento dito sa paglaban natin sa Covid-19 (They are the ones implementing localized lockdowns, vaccination. They are really the instrument in the fight against Covid-19). They may not be doctors, but they are equally front-liners dahil lahat po ng stratehiya natin ang mga humaharap po ang mga lokal na opisyales, si mayors at si governor (because our local officials—mayors and governors—are the ones on the frontlines in our strategy),” he said in a Palace press briefing.

The country kicked off its vaccination for frontline healthcare workers on March 1.

The Philippines aims to vaccinate around 50 to 70 million Filipinos this year. (By Azer Parrocha)