THE National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) has already started negotiations with private pharmacies and drugstore so that they may be allowed to administer COVID-vaccines amid this recent surge of new COVID-19 cases believed to be caused by the Omicron variant.
According to Dr. Ted Herbosa, NTF medical adviser, the government thought of making pharmacies and drugstores as alternative venues for vaccination due to the lack of health care workers who are either recalled back to the hospitals or have contracted COVID-19 themselves.
The idea of asking for help from private drugstores to administer the vaccines is for the government to continue with the mass vaccination efforts.
Herbosa said there is enough supply of vaccines in the country, with a stockpile of 210 million COVID-19 vaccines available in the country that arrived last December.
The government plans to start vaccinating the 5-11 year-old bracket by the first week of February.
Not less than 50 million doses of Pfizer are scheduled to arrive in the country to vaccinate the 5-11 year-old age group.