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The national government has moved governors, mayors, and other local chiefs up the vaccine priority list, placing them in an “A1.5” category, announced Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday, May 17.

A1.5 means governors and mayors are second in line for vaccination, after the first priority group, the country’s medical workers. They come ahead of senior citizens, who belong to the A2 grouping. Vaccinations of health workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities are now happening simultaneously.

Roque said governors and mayors deserved to be vaccinated already because they are as important to the COVID-19 response as doctors and nurses.

“Mayors and governors implement the prevention, detection, isolation, treatment, and rehabilitation cornerstone of our COVID program. They implement localized lockdowns, they implement vaccinations, they are really instruments in our fight vs COVID-19,” said Roque.

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In late-March, President Rodrigo Duterte asked 9 mayors to explain why they had gotten vaccinated at a time when the first batches of vaccines in the country were reserved for medical workers.

Over 2.9 million people in the Philippines have gotten either their first dose or both doses, as of May 15. Of these, 1.2 million health workers out of the country’s total of 1.8 million have received a shot. Over 580,000 senior citizens, some 430,000 persons with comorbities, and nearly 9,000 essential economic frontliners have gotten a jab. – Rappler.com