Eleazar orders use of police camps as vaccination centers
PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) chief Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Wednesday ordered all police regional and provincial directors to coordinate with the Department of Health (DoH) in identifying police camps that could be used for the government’s national vaccination program.
In a statement, Eleazar said this is in anticipation of possible untoward incidents when the government inoculates essential workers and indigent Filipinos, adding that the PNP is also open to picking up vaccine recipients from their homes.
“Bukas ang pintuan ng bawat kampo ng pulis sa adhikaing ito at kung kinakailangan, handa po ang inyong PNP na sunduin at ihatid ang ating mga kababayan na babakunahan (The door of every police station is open to you and if necessary, your PNP is ready to pick you up to be vaccinated),” said Eleazar.
Eleazar’s statement comes after vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. announced that police and military camps would be used as vaccination sites for the A4 priority sector as more coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine shipments arrive in the country. The A4 priority list includes security forces, fire personnel, and those working in Customs and Immigration and may take place in the last week of May.
Eleazar said the PNP would submit to the National Task Force the list of all the camps that could be used, including the protocols that would be implemented for the vaccination.
Eleazar said police camps would make good vaccination sites because of their wide, open spaces where proper physical distancing will definitely be observed once the administration of vaccines takes place in these areas.
The police chief added in his statement that for individual police stations and precincts, the PNP will also have to wait for guidance from President Rodrigo Duterte who previously floated the idea.
To date, the Department of Health (DoH) has recorded 1.15 million infections in the country, 52, 291 of which have been classified as active cases.