TAYTAY, Rizal — Local vaccinators administering the vaccine roll out in this town, who earlier spoiled an attempt of a sitting barangay chairman trying to bump-off priority sectors in the national vaccination against COVID-19, just got a lift from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Health (DOH).
Responding to a letter sent by Barangay San Juan chairman Rasel Valera complaining that he was “denied life-saving vaccine” by local health personnel administering the inoculation, municipal health office chief Dr. Jeffrey Roxas said that they are bound to adhere to the stipulations provided for under the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19, which specifically stated that healthcare workers are the first to be vaccinated amid limited supplies.
“We are strictly adhering [to] what has been stipulated in the National Task Force Against COVID-19, which says frontline workers in health facilities both national and local, private and public, health professionals and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, community health workers and janitors in charge of sanitizing hospitals and vaccination centers should be the first to receive the vaccine shots,” said Roxas, citing the need to prioritize 2,000 local frontline healthcare workers, then 25,000 elderlies.
Valera stated in a letter addressed to the local health office that “I should be included in the vaccination program on 21 March 2021 by local vaccinators,” adding that no part in the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan restricts elected officials from taking the vaccine shots.
However, Undersecretary for Barangay Affairs Martin Diño warded-off Valera’s bid to form part of Cluster A-1, adding that elected officials who form part of the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team are not qualified to take the first shots.
Diño said that the Liga ng mga Barangay has nevertheless filed a petition asking the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, seeking reconsideration. “The best thing that barangay chairman should do is either to wait for the decision of the IATF or adhere to what has been provided in the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan.
“Ginusto niyong maging Kapitan, panindigan niyo. Bagama’t naniniwala akong may basehan naman ang iginigiit niyo, mas dapat na maging huwaran kayo sa inyong pamayanan. Pag sinabing hindi pwede, hindi talaga pwede,” said Diño in a phone interview.
In a separate statement, the DOH warned administrators of COVID-19 vaccination sites, adding that they will be held accountable if individuals who are not in the priority list of vaccine recipients are inoculated in their area.
“As for our policy, the accountability lies with the head of the institution. That means the head of the hospital if it is healthcare workers, or the local government units. They are to be made accountable for the lapses in the prioritization framework,” Dr. Nikka Hao, head of the DOH Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, said in a press briefing.
Hao said incidents of non-priority individuals getting vaccinated are being reported and investigated.
She stressed the priority list must be followed or the Philippines could lose its COVAX allocations.
“Not doing such will risk us not receiving future supplies, not only from COVAX but even in our other engagements,” she said. “This is all part of the agreements that we have to follow under the national vaccination deployment plan.”