MANILA, Philippines — Provincial and regional directors of the national police have been directed to coordinate with the Department of Health in identifying police camps to be used as inoculation sites for the government's national vaccination program.
In a statement, Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP chief said he tasked police leadership to prepare for the use of police camps in the government’s vaccination plan "in anticipation of the possible untoward incidents" as the government prepares for the inoculation of essential workers and indigent Filipinos, adding that the PNP is also open to fetching vaccine beneficiaries from their homes.
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This comes after vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. announced that police and military camps would be used as vaccination sites for the A4 priority sector as more COVID-19 vaccine shipments arrive in the country.
"I have already issued an order to our [directors]...The doors of every police camp are open to this cause and if necessary, your PNP is ready to pick up and deliver our countrymen to be vaccinated," said Eleazar.
Eleazar said police camps could make good vaccination sites because of their open spaces where proper physical distancing can easily be observed.
Inoculation for the A4 category in the vaccine priority list, which includes security forces, fire personnel, and those working in customs and immigration, may start on the last week of May at the earliest.
"We will submit the list to the NTF COVID-19 of all the camps that could be used, including the protocols that we would implement for the vaccination,” he said.
The police chief added in his statement that for individual police stations and precincts, the PNP will also have wait for guidance from President Rodrigo Duterte who previously floated the idea.
To date, the Department of Health has recorded 1.15 million coronavirus infections in the country, 52,291 of whom are still classified as active cases.