The start of vaccination of health care workers at COVID-19 referral hospitals in Metro Manila begins Monday.
The ceremonial vaccination will be held on Monday at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), Lung Center of the Philippines, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Philippine National Police General Hospital, and V. Luna General Hospital. They will be attended by government officials.
This is after the first batch of vaccines against COVID-19, produced by the Chinese company Sinovac and donated by China, arrived in the Philippines this Sunday.
Hospitals have been conducting vaccination simulations for several weeks now.
But with PGH, the number of employees who want to be injected with the Sinovac vaccine has dropped.
From 13 percent, only 8 percent of PGH personnel will get the Sinovac vaccine, based on the town hall meeting held on Saturday.
PGH will not give the Sinovac vaccine to senior citizen employees who have recovered from COVID-19 because they do not have enough data on the possible effects of the vaccine on them.
“We asked for 1,000 doses muna… ‘yan ang hininging allocation ni Director [Gerardo Legaspi], based sa aming survey, ‘yan ang aming magpapabkuna,” said PGH Spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario.
COVID-19 vaccination in some Metro Manila hospitals begins today
According to the PGH leadership, after the Sinovac vaccine vaccination, they will conduct the vaccination of employees who will choose the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is scheduled to arrive in the Philippines on Monday.
“Tapusin muna ang Sinovac, para at least, ang vaccinators, focused on one specific brand, kaysa iba-iba pa,” said Del Rosario.
He said the number of PGH employees who will be vaccinated using AstraZeneca is greater.
The Lung Center leadership has also announced readiness for vaccinations.
The Department of Health has assured that the government will be responsible for treating those who experience adverse reactions to the vaccine.
The health care worker who will administer the vaccine will not be held liable for any adverse effect the vaccine recipient would experience.
“Sakaling magkaroon ng adverse effects following immunization ay isho-shoulder ng government through PhilHealth ang kanilang pagpapa-ospital,” said Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire.