PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar (File photo)
MANILA – Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Thursday said he will be the first to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), as the government rolled out the vaccines for the A4 (economic front-liners and uniformed personnel) sector.
Eleazar said he will be joined by the members of the PNP Command Group in receiving the first dose to boost vaccine confidence among police officers.
“Hindi kami mamimili kung anong brand ng Covid-19 vaccine ang ituturok sa amin (We will not choose any brand of Covid-19 vaccine that will be given to us). We subscribe to the findings of health experts that all vaccine brands are safe and effective kaya (so) we will take advantage of this free vaccination regardless of the brand,” he said in a statement.
He said aggressive information dissemination on vaccination has been proven effective as 92.23 percent of PNP personnel are now willing to be vaccinated based on the latest survey results.
This is a significant jump from the around 51 percent of PNP personnel who want to be vaccinated during the first survey in February.
Eleazar said the PNP Administrative Support for Covid-19 Task Force (ASCOTF) has disseminating fact sheets and videos from the Department of Health (DOH) about the benefits of being vaccinated against the Covid-19 using the PNP-Covid Data (CODA) platform which is accessible to all police officers.
So far, the PNP has yet to receive another batch of Covid-19 vaccines that would be used for its personnel under the A4 list.
“Hinihintay pa namin yung vaccine allocation namin (we are waiting for our allocation) but I have already instructed all PNP personnel to take advantage of the Covid vaccines that would be offered to them by their respective LGUs (local government units). This arrangement was already approved by our DILG Secretary Eduardo M Año,” Eleazar said.
Based on the latest PNP data, a total of 16,646 policemen belonging to the A1 (medical front-liners), A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities) have already been vaccinated. Around 11,167 of whom got their second dose
Meanwhile, as of Thursday, another 112 police officers have recovered from Covid-19, bringing the police force's recovery count to 23,472.
The PNP also recorded 133 new cases, raising its active case tally to 1,777 out of a total of 25,319 cases since the pandemic started in March last year. The death toll remains at 70. (PNA)
