Medical frontliners still top priority for Pfizer jabs
MANILA, Philippines — Healthcare workers remain the government’s top priority once the initial doses of the US-made Pfizer arrive in the Philippines, said Carlito Galvez Jr., chief of the National Task Force against COVID-19.
He said an initial 195,000 Pfizer doses might arrive later this month or early in May. The shipment is part of the 2.4 million Pfizer vaccines the World Health Organization committed to the Philippines through the global procurement pool COVAX.
The country has about 1.7 million medical workers.
“There were some who [opted to] wait for [an]other brand,” Galvez said on Tuesday. “With this, our prioriry [for Pfizer] will still be those in the A1 (category) and also A2 and A3,” he said.
The WHO earlier warned government officials to prioritize medical employees in the rollout so as not to jeopardize future vaccine deliveries.
