The Department of Health (DOH) has approved the use of United Kingdom's AstraZeneca vaccine to healthcare workers who are senior citizens, Malacanang said on Monday.

In a televised press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the DOH made the approval following the recommendation of the Interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (iNITAG) for COVID-19 Vaccines.

"The only difference is that AstraZeneca can be given to senior medical frontliners. But still the same rollout," he said.

When the government rolled out the vaccination program on March 1 using China's Sinovac vaccine, the health workers who are 60 years old and above were not advised to receive Sinovac due to its low efficacy.

In iNITAG Resolution No. 5, it said that consistent with indications in the emergency use authority and in light of the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccines, Sinovac "are not recommended to be administered to healthcare workers aged 60 years old and above."

The same Resolution provides that AstraZenica shall be initially allocated in all healthcare workers in all Level 3 hospitals, including COVID referral hospitals nationwide and "senior citizen healthcare workers in other hospitals nationwide," among others.

The dosing interval for the AstraZenica vaccine is from four to 12 weeks computed from the date of the first dose.

Co-administration of different vaccine brands to the same vaccine recipient shall not be allowed as only one vaccine type for both doses shall be administered per vaccine recipient, iNITAG said. Celerina Monte/DMS