DOH tracking down 600,000 health workers in COVID-19 vax priority list — spox

(FILE) TOP PRIORITY Health workers receive their first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Hulo Integrated School in Mandaluyong City on Thursday. —LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) said Friday it is still searching for around 600,000 healthcare workers who should be included in the master list to receive COVID-19 vaccine jabs.

According to DOH Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire, around 1.8 million healthcare workers in the country should be prioritized in the vaccination program. However, she noted that some of the healthcare workers are working freelance or are affiliated with private facilities.

“Sa ngayon kapag tiningnan po natin ‘yung mga nabakunahan at tsaka naimasterlist ng ating local government units at implementing sites, ‘yung ating 1.8 [million] na estimate na healthcare workers ay hindi pa po natin sila nasasagad,” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo on Friday.

(Right now if we will look at the list of vaccinees and those in the masterlist of our local government units, not all of the 1.8 million estimated healthcare workers have been vaccinated yet.)

“Hindi pa po natin sila nahahanap, dahil nga po maraming mga healthcare workers natin ngayon dealing with COVID are not affiliated in any of the institutions or facilities that we have right now,” she added.

(We have yet to find some of them, because many healthcare workers dealing with COVID are not affiliated with any of the institutions or facilities that we have right now.)

In an online press briefing, Vergeire said that the current masterlist of vaccination sites across the country contain the names of 1.2 million healthcare workers.

“Doon sa estimate natin bago tayo nag-umpisa we have a 1.8 [million] total estimate for our healthcare workers, so meron tayong difference dyan na mga 600,000,” she added.

(We estimated that there were 1.8 million healthcare workers before we started the vaccination, so the difference in the figures is 600,000.)

According to Vergeire, the DOH has also received anecdotal reports that doctors in private establishments have yet to receive their vaccines.

She said the local government units have been tasked to locate the remaining healthcare workers who have yet to receive the vaccines.

As of March 23, the country has administered 508,332 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as first shots.

The country has so far received a total of 1,525,600 doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines. The vaccines were donated by the Chinese government and the global vaccine sharing pool COVAX as the country awaits the delivery of its procured vaccines.

/MUF