WITH the ongoing efforts of both the national government and local government units (LGUs) on COVID-19 vaccination, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will deploy more than 50,000 police and fire personnel to provide support and security to the national vaccine rollout that will now include the A4 category next month.

DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año said that the deployment and presence of DILG’s uniformed personnel will ensure the smooth rollout of vaccines in the country as it begins mass vaccination efforts with the expected arrival of some 16-million vaccines in the next two months.

Of the over 50k uniformed personnel to be deployed, he said some 35,415 policemen and women of the Philippine National Police (PNP) will provide security during the transport of vaccines nationwide while 13,840 PNP personnel will be tasked with securing various vaccination areas in the country.

Meanwhile, he said the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has mobilized 2,390 fire personnel and 356 emergency medical service units (EMS) in 1,150 identified warehouse or cold storage and vaccination sites nationwide. It has also prepositioned 733 fire trucks and 59 ambulances.

“Our DILG uniformed personnel will not only secure the vaccines but those with medical backgrounds will also be assigned to do medical tasks in our vaccination sites all over the country,” he said.

To ensure the safety and health of the uniformed personnel to be deployed, the DILG Secretary said both the PNP and the BFP have continued their respective internal vaccination efforts.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Jun I. Legaspi