MANILA, Philippines — Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Monday proposed simultaneous COVID-19 vaccination of priority groups to ensure the safety of healthcare workers while sustaining the economy.
In a pre-recorded meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte, Galvez suggested the national government simultaneously vaccinate health workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and persons with comorbidities (A3) while the private sector inoculates economic frontliners (A4).
“‘Yung sequential, medyo matagal po. Dapat po simultaneous po natin ginagawa,” Galvez said.
(If we do it sequentially, it will take a long time. We should be vaccinating simultaneously.)
“We are targeting A1 to A3 and A4 at the same time. So the national government and the LGU [local government units] will target ‘yung A1 to A4 while the private sector can also do their inoculation with the supervision of the DOH [Department of Health] and the LGU targeting the A4,” he explained.
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Galvez cited the United States’ vaccination program, where they started inoculating essential workers after vaccinating 11 percent of their health workers.
Countries like Indonesia and Israel also rolled out their vaccinations of priority groups simultaneously, Galvez said.
“Maganda po ito. We are balancing the safety of our healthcare workers, at the same time, we’re trying to sustain ‘yung economy. Ang nakita po natin, dapat ‘yung private sector at ‘yung national government, dapat po sabay-sabay tayong mag-inoculate,” Galvez said.
(This is good. We are balancing the safety of our healthcare workers, at the same time, we’re trying to sustain the economy. We say that the private sector and the national government should simultaneously vaccinate the people.)