Año: Unvaccinated can get COVID-19 jabs at vax centers

Eduardo Año INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Instead of just shooing home unvaccinated persons caught outdoors or riding in public transportation, the police might take them to inoculation centers to get COVID-19 jabs.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said on Sunday that he was considering replicating Taguig City’s handling of unvaccinated persons as he wanted everyone to get some protection from the coronavirus and its variants.

Año told reporters that he was in favor of proposals to bring the unvaccinated to the inoculation centers so that they could get COVID-19 jabs.

“Taguig City has been doing that. On the first day of implementation [of restricting unvaccinated persons to their homes] they caught 400 persons at their checkpoints. They were brought to the vaccination site and they agreed to get vaccinated,” he said.

He backed the move which, he said, could be done in other parts of Metro Manila.

Exemptions

“We want [unvaccinated persons] to agree to get vaccinated. I think there are those who really want to get inoculated, especially the workers, but they don’t because they feel it’s bothersome. But if they’re there already, near the vaccination site, why won’t they agree to get vaccinated?” Año said.

He assured the public that unvaccinated persons caught outdoors or on public transportation at checkpoints set up by the Philippine National Police will not be arrested but will only be sent home, particularly when they have no valid reason to be outside.

The interior secretary pointed out that there were exemptions, particularly when the unvaccinated person is out running errands for essential purposes or when he or she cannot get the jab due to health reasons as certified by a doctor.