MANILA, Philippines — The chief of the national police Wednesday assured the public of the agency's readiness for the upcoming roll-out of the government's mass vaccination program against the coronavirus.
In a statement, Police Gen. Debold Sinas said that the PNP Directorate for Operations has already crafted "a strategic plan that will operationalize all security and public safety operations for the vaccine roll-out in the coming weeks and months" ahead of the program's official roll-out.
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To recall, the Philippine National Police has been designated as a member organization of the national government's Task Group Vaccine Cold Chain and Logistics Management, Task Group Immunization Program, and Task Group Demand Generation and Communication.
“In our own assessment of the simulation exercise of the vaccine delivery, all systems are in place to ensure the unhampered transport of the vaccine shipment to the storage facilities and distribution hubs,” Sinas said, adding that Police Lt. Gen. Cesar Binag, who serves as the PNP's deputy chief for operations and the commander of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, has been designated overall supervisor in the implementation of the "PNP Vaccination Plan Caduceus."
By Monday, February 15, the national government plans to begin COVID-19 vaccinations of frontline healthcare workers with the initial batch of some 117,000 doses of vaccines from American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer-BioNTech.
According to the chief of police, the agency's vaccination plan has already set security and public safety guidelines and procedures to be undertaken by police personnel in support to the Philippine National COVID-19 Deployment and Vaccination Plan.
Under the plan, Police Regional Offices are tasked to provide security assistance in the transport of vaccine shipments from storage hubs to vaccination centers. Offices are also tasked to set up police assistance desks in vaccination centers to prevent "criminal elements and threat groups from taking advantage."
Sinas also disclosed that police medical frontliners will be fielded to assist the health department and local government workers in administering COVID-19 jabs in designated vaccination centers.
“We designated a Medical Reserve Force on top of the regular PNP Medical and Nurse Corps. These are police personnel with formal medical-related training, but are presently assigned to PNP operating and line units performing regular police work," Sinas said.
"Police will remain on alert against possible peace and order and security issues, especially in known areas with domestic threat groups," he also said.
Total infections among cops have only continued to grow in the 329 since they were put in charge to carry out the coronavirus-induced lockdown imposed throughout the country in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.
Rights organizations have since slammed the heavy-handed enforcement as unnecessary and excessively militarized.
The Department of Health in its latest case update Wednesday afternoon reported that the national caseload had breached 541,560.
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Earlier Wednesday, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said that the PNP was expected to be "a constant presence in accordance with the national government’s vaccination plan, primarily to secure and protect the COVID-19 vaccines and the team that will be administering them."
In the list of priority beneficiaries, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 aims to inoculate first around 1.4 million workers in the healthcare sector.
However, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Tuesday suggested that police and military personnel, who are fifth in the order of priority beneficiaries, could be inoculated with extra doses from this first batch of vaccines.
— Franco Luna