TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Health workers in the province are ready for the COVID 19 vaccination roll out once the vaccines will be released in the province.
This was gathered from Provincial Health Officer Dr. Eduard Tandingan who informed Kalinga Today that the vaccination will be simultaneously done in the city and municipalities.
“We have existing health workers and we will rely on them to do the immunization,” he said, informing that the health workers have undergone an on-line training from January 28 to 29 to introduce them to the new vaccine.
“Though we have to be oriented using laptops and our phones, the training was successful. And we all have the necessary training materials 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭-𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘺𝘢 𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘰,” he said.
The Provincial Health Office he said will also be providing technical assistance to the health workers around the province.
Based on the COVID-19 vaccination deployment plan, the national government, he said, will be procuring 70 percent of the vaccines from the suppliers for distribution to the local government health offices for implementation through the rural health units.
Tandingan explained that the government hopes to attain the 70 percent coverage towards the end of the year for the country to attain herd immunity, adding that with the limited resources, the government could not yet do mass vaccination.
“𝘕𝘶 𝘢𝘥-𝘢𝘥𝘶 𝘵𝘪 𝘮𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘯𝘢-𝘢𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘯- 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘯𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘯 𝘫𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘥𝘶 𝘯𝘨𝘢 𝘢𝘨𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘪 𝘊𝘖𝘝𝘐𝘋,” he stressed explaining that herd immunity is the main purpose of said vaccination endeavors.
To increase the coverage, the local government units and the private sector he said are also encouraged to help and provide for the additional vaccines for their constituents and employees.
Since the vaccines are not yet commercially available and that procurement could only be done by the national government through emergency use authorization, the local government units he said can make arrangement through tripartite agreement between the national government, manufacturer and concerned LGU to procure the vaccines. The private sector, could arrange with the national government or the LGU if the latter decides to procure for additional vaccines.
To ensure the supply, the national government he said is negotiating with at least six manufacturers, but procurement could be done per phase.
“I would not say that we have enough supply, but the government have already negotiated with available manufacturers. We cannot have all that we need because of limited production and we must understand that the vaccines are needed globally,” he said adding that through the World Health Organization, said manufacturers are sharing their product to the rest of the world but will have to be equitably divided among the nations. By GBG
