MANILA, Philippines — The vaccination of COVID-19 patients, once the vaccine is available, will be supervised by doctors in police stations, President Rodrigo Duterte said in a taped speech aired on Monday.
Duterte also repeated his earlier promise that the poor would be among thosoe prioritized to get the vaccine.
Meanwhile, he urged the public to keep following quarantine rules.
“Just follow [the rules]. After all, it’s almost here. When the vaccine is available, I will get it on credit if we don’t have money,” Duterte said, speaking partly in Filipino.
“But this will be fast. I have ordered that this be done in police stations with the doctors there so that you only have to go to one place,” he added. “After all, vaccination is quick. It’s just an injection. It doesn’t take about 2 minutes, 3 minutes to inject the vaccine. People can easily find police stations. Just line up there.”
Duterte also expressed optimism that a vaccine would be ready soon.
“When this pushes through, by January we will be better off. The problem is that, in the clinical trials of Moderna, there were people who exhibited side effects. But if it’s only one out of 50, then that is native to him. It’s not the vaccine anymore. We’ll just try to wait. It’s almost here,” he said.
The country is in talks with several countries like the United States, China, Russia, Taiwan and Australia for a possible COVID-19 vaccine.
Both Russia and China have already vowed to prioritize the Philippines once they could develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.
[atm]