DOH says around 50,000 vaccinators needed for priority groups inoculation

MANILA, Philippines — The country needs approximately 50,000 vaccinators to administer Covid-19 shots to priority sectors when the government launches its mass inoculation drive against the new coronavirus, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday.

“Sa ngayon po tinataya po natin based on the number of eligible individuals ‘no, based from each sector na tinitingnan natin, nakikita natin mangangailangan po tayo ng roughly around 50,000 vaccinators ‘no para po dito sa ating isasagawang deployment program for the priority population,” DOH spokesperson Ma. Rosario Vergeire said in a televised briefing.

(As of now, based on the number of eligible individuals, based on each sector, we will need roughly around 50,000 vaccinators to inoculate the priority population.

So far, 4.7 million individuals have been included in the government’s master list for its Covid-19 vaccination program.

Of this, 186,000 are health care workers, 1.4 million are senior citizens, three million are indigent citizens, and 164,000 are uniformed personnel.

Vergeire said 4,000 vaccinators have undergone training since December.

“Tayo po ay nagkaroon ng end-to-end process doon sa training na iyon. As I’ve said hindi lang iyong pagbabakuna kung hindi iyong mga preparatory stages hanggang sa imu-monitor na po natin ang mga kababayan natin,” she explained.

(We have an end-to-end process in this training. As I’ve said, they’re not only being trained to vaccinate but also trained for the preparatory stages until monitoring our patients.)

Last month, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said 25,000 more vaccinators are being trained to achieve the daily goal of inoculating up to 200,000 Filipinos against Covid-19.