NTF: Vaccination starts this month

MANILA, Philippines — The government has approved the plan for mass vaccination against the coronavirus, the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 said over the weekend as the inoculation is expected to begin this month.

In a memorandum dated Jan. 26 but made public only on Saturday, the government’s task force laid out its plans and directions for government and private stakeholders in carrying out the efficient rollout of vaccines once the jabs arrive.

All NTF agencies, regional and local task forces and vaccination centers have been ordered to implement the memorandum. Local governments were also asked to establish vaccination operation centers or VOCs “as soon as possible.”

“The implementing units such as government hospitals (both private and public), private clinics, government agencies, rural health units shall forward all concerns and reports to the City/Municipal Health Offices. The City/Municipal Health Offices, in turn, are required to report all concerns and updates to the VOC,” the vaccination plan read.

At least seven phases have been laid out, including the initial vaccine procurement, shipment and storage,
distribution and deployment; implementation of the nationwide vaccination plan and corresponding assessment.

The plan also includes a public affairs strategy for vaccine confidence, assignment of vaccination and storage sites, supply and demand management, and the steps for vaccination from registration to surveillance.

In the deployment process, the NTF said areas with high COVID-19 active cases and attack rates would be prioritized.

Individuals who would be receiving the vaccine, meanwhile, would also be included in a master list through online or offline registration.

In the plan, health workers would be the first sector in Group A to receive vaccines, followed by senior citizens (Phase 2), indigent population (Phase 3) and uniformed personnel (Phase 4).

The master list for demographics of Group A would have been submitted yesterday, while the completion of patient profiles would be on Feb. 15. Recipients must be informed of adverse effects as well as potential unknown risks of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Under Group B or Phase 5 are other frontline workers and special populations and Group C or Phase 6 would be the remaining unvaccinated population. The full master list for Phase 1 to 5 would have been done by March 31, and Phase 6 by June 30.

The post-implementation phase or the monitoring for adverse effects meanwhile would begin after the first dose has been administered.

“The role of vaccine safety monitoring during COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to facilitate the early detection, reporting, notification, investigation and analysis, and feedback of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFIs) and Adverse Events of Special Interest (AESI), to ensure appropriate and timely case management and response,” the plan read.

The memorandum was signed by NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr., chairman Delfin Lorenzana and vice chairman Eduardo Año.

Millions of vaccine doses incoming

The Philippines will receive more than nine million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca within the first two quarters of the year under the COVAX facility, the NTF said yesterday.

In a statement, Galvez said the government was told by the Covax Facility that at least 5.6 million doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines would arrive within the first quarter of the year.

“Today, we received a letter from Aurélia Nguyen, managing director of the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, officially informing the Philippine government that the country stands to receive a total of 9,407,400 doses from the two pharmaceutical makers within the projected first and second quarters of this year,” he said.

Covax Facility is a global initiative that seeks to provide countries access to safe and effective vaccines through a multi-sectoral cooperation.

“With the country demonstrating its preparedness to receive the vaccines, the regional review committees from the WHO, UNICEF, and Gavi have granted us two vaccine brands that have been authorized or very close to being authorized by WHO through an Emergency Use Listing (EUL),” according to the letter.

The COVAX Facility, said the NTF, also wrote that the country would receive 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines in mid-February, which would cover the first quarter supply commitment. The delivery of the rest of the doses would be announced at a later time, Galvez said.

While the number of vaccine doses arriving was still “indicative” as the British drugmaker has yet to receive an emergency use listing from the WHO, Galvez said the NTF was told the initial delivery was already scheduled by mid to late February.

“I would like to emphasize that according to COVAX the number of doses and the projected arrival of the vaccines are all indicative since it all depends on the global supply,” he explained.

Pfizer and AstraZeneca have already earned emergency use authorizations from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration.

Galvez said the government would continue making visits to local government units but said many LGUs and the private sector were prepared for the vaccine rollout.

“Your government will secure the targeted 148 million doses of safe, effective, and free vaccines to inoculate 70 million people by 2021 and realize our nation’s goal of achieving herd immunity within this year,” he said, urging Filipinos to set aside fears over the safety of vaccines.

Help from above

The Department of Health (DOH) sees more people agreeing to be vaccinated against COVID after Church leaders allowed use of churches nationwide as inoculation sites.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said more Filipinos will also be encouraged to receive the vaccines with bishops willing to get vaccinated in public.

“The move of the CBCP to transform church facilities to vaccination sites will surely expedite delivery of most-needed healthcare services. This also adds up to the public’s uptake on vaccines as the bishops expressed their willingness to get vaccinated,” Duque said in a statement.

“We are happy with the CBCP’s offer to have churches as vaccination hubs if needed. Churches really can be alternative sites to areas that lack facility, especially those in hard-to-reach municipalities,” he added.

According to Duque, the government needs the support of all sectors for the successful implementation of the immunization program.

Building inventory

While the Duterte administration’s global hunt for COVID-19 vaccines has not yet led to a single delivery to the hardest-hit country in the Western Pacific, it should, in the meantime, stock up on necessary vaccination supplies such as syringes, which are available in the market, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said yesterday.

The senator said the government should be building up inventory of important things aside from vaccines that do not have any supply crunch.

“You don’t have to wait for the horse to arrive before you start building the cart,” Recto said, referring to ancillary requirements for vaccination that range from PPEs and syringes to refrigerators.

“There are also things which cannot be taken for granted, like transportation, and even small things like ice boxes needed for the last mile,” he said.

Government officials have claimed, during the recent Senate hearing on the national vaccination plan, that the current DOH stockpile of 30.5 million 0.5 ml syringes, 3.6 million mixing syringes, 3.8 million safety collector boxes, 3.6 million face masks, and 151,761 face shields are enough to meet initial vaccination requirements.

He said while the DOH and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases have given their assurances, they should consider a possible surge in cases on top of regular caseloads of public hospitals.

The other important thing, he said, is that such should be forward deployed now to towns – not in trickles nor sent at the last-minute. – Mayen Jaymalin,Paolo Romero