At least 116,000 health workers in the National Capital Region (NCR) have signed up to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.
Dr. Razel Nikka Hao, deputy to the COVID-19 Surveillance and Quick Action Unit, said the number would rise as registration is still ongoing.
“At this point, we are in the process of master listing for group A1 or all of the workers in frontline health care services. Since January this year, we have reached out to health care facilities and local governments to determine who will fit in the criteria, who are eligible…We are getting the numbers, which will guide our operational plans,” Hao said during an online briefing.
Under the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program, workers in frontline health services are on top of the priority list. The limited COVID-19 vaccine supply, however, will trim this list based on the COVID-19 burden of the area, the local government unit’s capacity to store and distribute vaccines, and the exposure and mortality risk of individuals.
Based on government records, the NCR remains the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country with 4,602 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the last two weeks.
Manila Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan, a doctor, said at least 80,000 Manila city residents pre-registered for Manila’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
Lacuna-Pangan said that the city has also prepared an alternate list in the event that those who are set to receive the COVID-19 back out at the last minute.
The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility, which include that of Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca, is due to arrive within the first quarter and is expected to be deployed in COVID-19 referral hospitals in Metro Manila.
The initial doses will include at least 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 5.5 million doses from AstraZeneca.
Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines, which were already issued emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are administered in two doses.
According to the government plan, the vaccines will first go to COVID-19 dedicated hospitals, then to COVID-19 referral hospitals, followed by Department of Health-owned hospitals, LGU hospitals, hospitals for uniformed personnel, and private hospitals.
FDA Director General Eric Domingo said last month that interim data from the ongoing phase 3 trials showed that the Pfizer vaccine has an efficacy of 95 percent in the study population and at least 92 percent among all racial groups.
The vaccine requires ultra cold storage.
Earlier, the government said health workers and employees of Philippine General Hospital in Manila, the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City, and the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium (Tala Hospital) in Caloocan City will be among the first to be vaccinated.
The Philippines will initially receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine through the COVAX Facility in mid-February.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first to secure an EUA from the FDA.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said master listing and data management are integral pre-implementation planning activities being done across hospitals and local government units, especially in the context of the upcoming COVID vaccine deployment across the country.
“Because of the limited supply of COVID vaccines globally, we need to do prioritization,” she said.
Master listing with demographics and health profiles will enable identification of eligible population groups to guide operational planning and create a central database needed for efficient post-vaccine monitoring, she added.
