A local news website on Wednesday reported that actor Mark Anthony Fernandez has received a dose of Astrazeneca vaccine against COVID-19 despite not being a healthcare worker, the country’s top priority in its inoculation program.

In an interview with Pep.ph, the 42-year-old actor revealed that he was vaccinated last March 22 in Parañaque City. He didn’t further disclose why he got the vaccine jab.

Paranaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez defended the jab and said that Fernandez has comorbidities such as hypertension and depression that qualify him as a substitute on the COVID-19 vaccination priority list.

He also added that they were almost done vaccinating their medical frontliners and have moved on to inoculating senior citizens.

Based on the country’s vaccination list of priority groups, frontline healthcare workers topped the list, followed by senior citizens and persons with co-morbidities.

Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned the country that it should follow its prioritization list, or else the country will no longer receive vaccines from the COVAX facility.

“If we cannot demonstrate that we are following this prioritization, unfortunately, the COVAX may have to consider other options where the impact of the vaccine rollout will be more useful and practical and will contribute to saving more lives,” said Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the organization’s representative to the Philippines.

Just this week, Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez said he was vaccinated with CoronaVac, a vaccine donated by China.

Romualdez confirmed that he got vaccinated, but he denied ‘skipping the line’ for selfish reasons.

In an interview with DZRH’s Dos Por Dos, the mayor said he only wanted to dispel the ‘bad publicity’ on COVID-19 vaccines by volunteering to get inoculated.