More than 700 rank and file employees of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) received their second dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine over the weekend.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that the 700 BI workers were inoculated last Saturday and Sunday at BI main bldg. in Intramuros, Manila.
“Now they have gotten their second dose, our frontliners are now more confident of rendering efficient service to the public with less anxiety of getting infected by the virus,” Morente said.
He added that despite completing their inoculations, the vaccinees were still reminded to follow minimum health protocols, such as wearing masks and face shields, while on duty.
“Employees of the BI, being a frontline agency, are one of the most vulnerable to the virus,” said Morente. “Our personnel assigned at the airports and seaports, as well as those manning our different offices nationwide, are highly exposed as the nature of their jobs demands that they come face to face with hundreds of people, be they international travelers or visa applicants, who avail of our services,” he added.
It was learned that those who completed their vaccination were among the nearly 1,300 BI employees who received their first dose of Sinovac last April 24-25 and May 1-2.
700 BI workers get second jab of Sinovac vaccine
According to BI Covid-19 Task Force Chair and Deputy Commissioner Aldwin Alegre, the remaining vaccinees are scheduled to receive their second dose this coming weekend.
Nonetheless, BI officials said there are still about 700 to 800 employees assigned at the airport and BI offices in Metro Manila who have yet to be vaccinated.
They added that heads of the different field offices and subports outside Metro Manila have been instructed to coordinate with their respective local government units (LGUs) to have their staff vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the national Social Weather Survey of April 28– May 2, 2021 found 63% of adult Filipinos choosing the United States of America (USA) as their preferred source of Covid-19 vaccines.
The survey also found Sinovac Biotech and Pfizer-BioNTech topping the list of preferred brands at 39% and 32%, respectively.
At the time of the survey, over 7 million Covid-19 vaccines have been delivered to the Philippines. Most of these vaccines are China’s Sinovac (about 5 million), followed by United Kingdom’s Oxford-AstraZeneca (about 2.5 million) and Russia’s Gamaleya Sputnik (about 30,000).
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