VACCINE rollout finally begins in the Philippines with the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) chief taking the first dose developed by China-based biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech.
After administering the first official COVID-19 jab to PGH director Gerardo Legaspi, PGH nurse Chareluck Santos followed, then the 100 other PGH medical personnel.
Medical staff from various COVID-19 referral facilities were also injected with the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, says vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, who also had himself inoculated on day one of the government’s mass vaccination program.
Aside from the 100 PGH medical staff, members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and government personnel from the Department of National Defense (DND) were vaccinated.
Likewise injected with the China-made vaccine were Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Eric Domingo and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon, who got his shot at the Tala Hospital, officially referred to as the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium, in Caloocan City.
Under the vaccination priority list, frontline workers in health facilities should be the first to get inoculated.
Aside from PGH, the priority hospitals for vaccination are the Lung Center of the Philippines, Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium (Tala Hospital), PNP General Hospital, Pasig City General Hospital, and the V. Luna Medical Center, of the AFP Medical Center (AFPMC).
Interestingly, a prior survey administered among the government healthcare workers from the priority hospital vaccination list showed an average of 10 to 12 percent willingness to receive shots of the China-made vaccines.
(Photo credit: news.abs-cbn.com)