Once all Filipinos are vaccinated, foreigners may be considered next - NTF official
The Philippine government may allow foreigners to avail of the vaccination program against coronavirus disease after all Filipinos have been inoculated, an official said on Thursday.
National Task Force Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio Dizon echoed an earlier statement of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque that foreigners are not yet included in the government's priority list for COVID-19 vaccination.
"We don't have policy for the non-Filipinos because our priority are all Filipinos," he said in a televised press briefing.
"But maybe after all of our citizens have been inoculated, then we can go to the foreigners," he said.
Earlier, Roque, also spokesman of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said there was no plan yet to include foreigners in the COVID-19 vaccination program.
But he said with the tripartite agreement being worked out by private companies with the government in procuring the vaccines from pharmaceutical companies, foreigners may be covered.
The frontline workers in health facilities; senior citizens aged 60 years old and above; persons with comorbidities; frontline personnel in essential sectors, including uniformed personnel and those in working sectors identified by the IATF as essential during enhanced community quarantine are among those in the government's priority for COVID-19 inoculation program. Celerina Monte/DMS
