DOH, NTF: VACCINATION PACE EXPECTED TO

SOAR ONCE VACCINE SUPPLIES ARRIVE

Press Release | 13 March 2021

The Department of Health (DOH) and the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) today
assured the public that the current pace of the COVID-19 vaccination for healthcare workers is
expected to rise exponentially once bulk of the government-procured doses, as well as those from
the COVAX Facility arrive by mid-second quarter of this year.

The DOH and NTF further clarified that the current pace of COVID-19 vaccination for healthcare
workers (HCWs) will not be the pace the vaccination will go once full-scale implementation of
the National COVID-19 Vaccination Program has been initiated. “It is not logical to compute
performance evaluation from the start of the mini roll out. We will be able to get our benchmark
vaccination rate when we start our massive community roll out by May and June,” NTF Chief
Implementer and Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez said.

According to Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, it is expected that the vaccination of HCWs
will be steadily paced in order to ensure that hospitals are fully operational and their hospital staff
sufficient at any given time, considering that the same healthcare workers being vaccinated are the
ones maintaining the integrity of the health system. “In anticipation of local and systemic reactions
that can occur as a result of vaccination and may render some vaccinees unable to report to work,
hospitals needed to spread out the vaccination of their staff. Hindi pwedeng lahat sabay-sabay
because we need to ensure na meron tayong sapat na bilang ng medical frontliners para
magpatakbo ng ospital,” Sec. Duque said.

Further, both Sec. Duque and Sec. Galvez highlighted that the initial rollout of COVID-19 vaccines
to HCWs is but the preparatory phase of the full-scale vaccination program, and noted that lessons
learned from this phase will be beneficial once vaccination has been ramped up to cover the rest
of the priority populations.

“We are only in the second week of our roll out, but the experience we are gaining from this phase
will help us once supply of vaccines becomes steady. As of latest count, we have already deployed
almost 90% of our available doses. These vaccines have reached Batanes to Tawi-tawi, from the
northernmost to the southernmost island provinces--a testament that our distribution channels are
ready should the vaccines arrive,” Sec. Galvez said.

“While herd immunity is the goal of every country including ours, our short term goal with the
limited vaccine supply is to reduce mortality and protect those who are at most risk.” Sec. Duque
said. “We are confident that we will be vaccinating much more once our vaccines arrive, but while
we wait for our turn to get vaccinated, I want to emphasize that we cannot let our guards down.
Vaccination is only one of our strategies to beat this virus, but our adherence to MPHS is still the
best” he added.