Galvez: Vaccine priority list focuses on ‘most vulnerable’

IN insisting on the government’s vaccine prioritization schedule, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said earlier this week that they are focusing on protecting the country’s most vulnerable sectors like the elderly who pose the heaviest ‘burden of death’ and ‘burden of hospitalization’ on the country’s health care system.

“There’s no problem with mass vaccination if the supply is plenty. But if there is (a) limited supply, we must focus on the essential sectors. As I said earlier, we have priority sectors and priority areas, so if we address them about 80 percent of the problem is solved which means checkmate na ang critical care utilization rate and death rate,” Galvez said during Monday noon’s press briefing held at the City Council session hall.

Galvez’s statement was in response to questions from local media on expanding the vaccination campaign for the A4 category or non-medical essential workers sector.

In Cagayan de Oro City, the vaccination of A4 workers is limited to those aged 50 to 59 years old as City Hall and the Department of Health (DOH-10) regional office are prioritizing the vaccination of seniors (A2) and persons with comorbidities/underlying illnesses (A3).

“Due to the limited vaccine supply, we cannot employ the shotgun approach which in this case is mass vaccination. Just like in our expanded testing, we focus on the most vulnerable…from July to September, we will prioritize (our vaccine supply efforts to) Region 10 (Northern Mindanao). That’s why when I talked to (Gingoog City) Mayor Erick (Cañosa) if they can vaccinate 2,000 constituents daily, we will support him, the same with (Cagayan de Oro City) Mayor Oscar Moreno and all local governments in Region 10,” Galvez said.

Both Cagayan de Oro City and Gingoog City, a component city of Misamis Oriental, are under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) following the discovery of six Covid-19 patients who were confirmed to have contracted the more virulent Delta variant of the virus.

Five of the patients live in Cagayan de Oro City with the sixth being a Gingoog City resident. All five of the Cagayan de Oro City residents were re-isolated in a facility with extensive retroactive contact tracing underway, the City Health Office said.

In City Hall’s daily press briefing, Moreno said City Hall ramped up its vaccination pace to 5,000 vaccinations daily since last July 17.

Moreno also confirmed that more than 400,000 vaccines were allocated to northern Mindanao including more than 2,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine of Johnson and Johnson which is single-dose and will be allocated to the city’s seniors and A3 vaccine recipients. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)