DOH to issue guidelines for vaccination of health workers’ kin

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) will be issuing the guidelines for the COVID-19 vaccination of the immediate kin of healthcare workers, an official said Saturday.

Earlier, Malacañang announced that the Inter-Agency Task Force  (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases included the immediate family members of health workers under the A1 priority group of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination drive.

The guidelines will determine who among the relatives of the healthcare workers will get priority as their vaccination will depend on the supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the country, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during the Laging Handa briefing.

“Itong pong mga kamag-anak ng mga health workers kailangan pa ho nating makapag-release ng guidelines para magkaroon po tayo ng pamantayan kasi kailangan lang po siguro nuclear family muna ang unahin natin dahil nga alam natin na this will all depend on the number of doses that we have right now,” she said.

(For the family of the healthcare workers, we need to release guidelines so that we can set standards because what we need to do is prioritize the nuclear family since this will all depend on the number of doses that we have right now.)

“So hintayin po natin yung mga guidelines para po mas maayos po ang pagpapatupad natin…Atin pong pinagaaralan maigi dahil ang usapan naman po talaga with our IATF officials, this will depend on the supplies or depend on the delivery of vaccines to our country,” she added.

(So we need to wait for the guidelines so we can implement their vaccination properly. We are studying this carefully with our IATF officials, this will depend on the supplies or depend on the delivery of vaccines to our country.)

According to Vergeire, medical frontliners have long been requesting that their family be included in the government’s vaccination priority in order to ensure complete protection from the virus.

“Ang kanilang sinasabi sa atin na nabakunahan nga sila pero ‘pag umuwi naman sila sa kanilang mga kabahayan ay yung kanilang mga kasama sa bahay ay hindi bakunado. So nandoon pa rin yung risk na pwede silang mahawa at pwede rin nilang mahawa yung kanilang mga kamag-anak,” the DOH official said.

(What they’re saying to us is that, yes, they’ve been vaccinated but when they go home, those living with them have yet to be inoculated. So the risk is still there because they can still get infected or infect their family.)

Aside from the immediate kin of healthcare workers, the A1 group now also covers overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) who are bound for deployment abroad within four months after their vaccination date.

Vergeire said they are coordinating with the Department of Labor and Employment to collate data on how many Filipino migrant workers are set to depart for their host country in the next four months.

/MUF