THE Philippine National Police (PNP) has deployed seven vaccination teams to assist in the ongoing three-day national vaccination drive, police Chief Dionardo Carlos said on Monday, November 29, 2021.

Carlos said the teams are composed of 70 medical reserve forces personnel from the PNP Health Service who were pulled out from their duty station at the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swabbing facility in the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City.

He said these teams were deployed to the Regional Medical and Dental Unit of Police Regional Offices in Pampanga, Laguna and National Capital Region.

"Nationwide, there are 5,530 PNP Medical Reserve Force personnel, 347 of whom are trained vaccinators. They are now on standby in their duty stations in PNP Regional Health Units awaiting on-call deployment in case DOH-NVOC (Department of Health- National Vaccination Operations Center) will need more vaccination team personnel," said Carlos.

Carlos said 10 Medical Reserve Force personnel in Camp Crame and 18 trained vaccinators at the Regional Medical-Dental Unit of National Capital Region Police Office were also on stand-by for rapid deployment.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deployed medical teams tasked to provide coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine shots to people living in "geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas" (Gidas) amid the ongoing national vaccination drive from November 29, 30 and December 1.

"Naitalaga sa amin na maipaabot ang bakuna sa ating mga kababayan na nasa lugar na tinatawag nating 'Gidas' or geograpically isolated and disadvantaged areas yan nga po ‘yung mga isla, kabundukan, yun pong kumunidad ng ating mga IPs (Indigenous Peoples)," AFP Surgeon General, Colonel Fatima Claire Navarro, said in an radio interview on Sunday, November 28.

Navarro said 25 medical teams in the various unified commands all over the country will be deployed to vaccinate people residing in these Gidas aside from the 37 medical teams tasked to provide manpower support to civilian medical units.

She said they were also in charge of the hauling of medical supplies and materials that will be used for the vaccination campaigns. (SunStar Philippines)