Back to square one for choosy COVID-19 vaccinees — DILG

Hospital workers and personnel of the Philippine National Police receive their AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots at a vaccination center in Marikina City on March 24. INQUIRER file photo / NIÑO JESUSORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — Individuals declining to get vaccinated with a specific brand will have to “go back to the line” of their respective inoculation category, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said Friday.

“That person has to go back to the line. Meaning, assuming he is [category] A2 or A3, he will have to go back to the line of all of the A2 or A3 masterlist in that specific community,” Malaya said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel .

“That, again, will delay the inoculation of that person, and if there are many persons like that, that delays the inoculation of the community,” he added.

Malaya stressed that individuals have the right to know the vaccine to be administered once they are on site as critics raised concerns over violations of persons’ rights to know.

The DILG issued the directive after the Department of Health (DOH) pushed for a “brand agnostic” COVID-19 immunization campaign, after large crowds turned up for limited doses of a more preferred vaccine brand in Metro Manila vaccination sites early this week.

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