Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire (Screengrab from online briefing)
MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday has recommended that companies and local government units (LGUs) observe age stratification in the vaccination of the A4 (economic front-liners) sector, considering the limited supply of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines.
“The workers may be stratified according to age so that it is aligned to the vulnerability or risk that we’re facing now with Covid-19,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during an online media forum.
Vergeire noted that under Department Memorandum 2021-0259, A4 category members may be stratified from the oldest to the youngest.
The memorandum states priority may be given to eligible A4 members within 40 to 59 years old, then to those 18 to 39 years old in situations where there is a limited supply of Covid-19 vaccines.
“We know the arrival of the supply might not be enough to cover all these A4 sector. And when it [vaccine supply] arrives, it will be more organized, more rational distribution, we recommended that they may use the age stratification,” Vergeire said.
She added that the strategy that would be used in the vaccination of the A4 workers which comprise 22 million of the population is phased implementation.
“Secretary (Carlito) Galvez earlier announced the NCR Plus 8 will be prioritized and the total estimate of A4 for that is 12 million individuals,” Vergeire said.
The NCR Plus 8 includes Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao.
As of Sunday, the National Task Force Against Covid-19 reported that 5,965,651 doses have already been administered in the country.
Of this figure, 4,421,319 are first doses and 1,544,332 are second doses.
The average daily number of administered doses in the last seven days is 112,621 among the 937 active reporting vaccination sites. (PNA)
