IATF asked to allow home vaccination for bedridden
A METRO Manila House leader on Friday urged the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) against coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) to allow home vaccination for house-bound persons like bedridden individuals and those physically impaired.
“There are many of our people who cannot go out of their home due to sickness, age or physical disability. For them, the IATF and the Department of Health (DoH) could arrange home inoculation for these most vulnerable citizens through local government units (LGUs),” House Assistant Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Precious Castelo said.
Castelo said the target individuals or their relatives could register with their barangays, whose officials could check on their condition.
“Alternatively, barangay officers could seek them out. They could request for volunteer doctors or nurses who could do the vaccination so as not to further burden healthcare workers in LGU immunization centers. The DoH and LGUs could just monitor the home inoculation,” Castelo said.
She added that home vaccination would ensure that “no one would be left out in the government’s immunization program against COVID-19.”
“As health advocates would say at this time of pandemic, no one is safe until everyone is safe,” Castelo stressed.
She pointed out that home vaccination would complement her proposal for the IATF to allow private subdivisions or villages to do their own vaccination for their residents.
“These twin measures will ease congestion in LGU vaccination centers. Overcrowding in these immunization sites is turning away people who want to get vaccinated. They fear they might get the virus,” she said.
Castelo said her two proposals would speed up the immunization program especially when sufficient vaccine becomes available.
“If up to two million doses are delivered in the next two weeks as officials have promised, we should hasten the vaccine rollout through additional immunization measures such as home, village and office vaccination,” Castelo said.
