The Department of Health said that it is now finalizing the masterlist of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine recipients by February 15.

In an online briefing, the DOH said that health facilities have 2 weeks to prepare the list of its recipients which would also include administrative and support staff.

“We are assured that before Feb. 15, our master list will be complete for our vaccine implementation,” the DOH said.

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The DOH said that a total of 1,762,994 frontline health workers have been identified to receive the first batch of the vaccine.

The following are the priority groups for the government’s vaccination program:

• Private and public health workers working in treatment and rehabilitation centers, COVID-19 treatment and monitoring facilities, hospitals (612,975)

• Other public health workers, like those in rural, city and provincial health offices, those on the field, and local government contact tracers (602,982)

• Barangay health workers including BHERTS (414,640)

• Other frontline workers in other national government agencies, like DSWD, DepEd, DILG, BJMP and Bureau of Corrections (132,397)

The DOH said that the database will be put into the COVID-19 electronic immunization registry (CEIR).

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said that the COVID-19 vaccines will be fully rolled out to the public starting the third quarter of 2021.

“For the quarter three or Q3, iyong third quarter, we will start our massive nationwide rollout,” Galvez said in a media briefing on Tuesday.

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Following the government’s timeline, some 30-50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the country including those from the COVAX facility during this period.

Galvez said the government hopes to vaccinate 50-70 million Filipinos before the end of 2021.

American company Pfizer is set to deliver the first 500,000 doses of its vaccine in February together with British vaccine maker AstraZeneca. (TDT)