BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – When does the vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for economic frontline workers (A4 category) start?
Negros Occidental’s Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson is urging the national government to allow the provincial government to begin now.
A substantial number of individuals under A4, not only in the National Capital Region but nationwide, have signified willingness to be vaccinated, according to Lacson.
The governor’s call was also in response to the request of several mayors in the province.
In the town of Manapla, Mayor Manolet Escalante reported that only 1,000 residents under A1 (frontline health workers), A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities) groups have been vaccinated.
Escalante said the Department of Health should already allow the vaccination of other groups as the supply of vaccines is no longer a problem.
The government’s prioritization framework for COVID-19 vaccination is based on the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization. It was formulated due to the limited global supply of COVID-19 vaccine products.
In this framework, frontline personnel in essential sectors, including uniformed personnel, are listed as A4.
A5 are the indigent population.
Lacson presented data (as of June 22) showing that the province’s vaccine rollout had a 96.5 percent success rate.
He noted, too, that Negros Occidental has enough vaccines should the national government gives the green light for the vaccination of economic frontline workers.
“I always say we have to be ready because it’s the national government saying that by August we will have a lot of vaccines. So we expect more vaccines,” Lacson added.
The government’s prioritization framework listed under Priority Eligible B the following:
* B1. Teachers, Social Workers
* B2. Other Government Workers
* B3. Other Essential Workers
* B4. Socio-demographic groups at significantly higher risk other than senior citizens and poor population based on the NHTS-PR
* B5. Overseas FIlipino Workers
* B6. Other Remaining Workforce
Earlier, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said they we finding it difficult to convince Negrenses to get vaccinated.
Diaz said some local government units were reporting that some of their constituents were hesitant to get vaccinated, especially those who haven’t yet experienced getting inoculated for other diseases.
“There are residents here who haven’t experienced getting vaccinated, and some even don’t believe in the effectiveness of vaccines,” Diaz said./PN