Thousands of doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Cebu City and Davao City this Tuesday as part of the government’s vaccination program.
Up to 7,200 doses of Sinovac vaccines or CoronaVac have arrived at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City, where 1,994 health workers of the hospital and local Department of Health (DOH) will be targeted to be vaccinated against the virus.
Davao City received about 12,000 doses of the vaccine.
According to Annabelle Yumang, director of the DOH in the Davao region, there are about 8,000 health workers in the Davao region.
Vaccination will be held on Friday at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), where 75 percent of the hospital’s nearly 4,000 employees have agreed to be vaccinated.
According to the SPCM, no one withdrew when they found out that Sinovac would be given to them.
Recipients also include health workers at the Davao Regional Medical Center in Tagum City as well as frontliners at health centers and temporary treatment facilities.
One of the first to be vaccinated is SPMC chief Dr. Ricardo Audan.
Thousands of Sinovac vaccines arrive in Cebu, Davao
According to Audan, he will be vaccinated first to dispel the doubts of other health workers.
In Cebu City, VSMMC COVID-19 health facility chief Dr. Helen Madamba said that they are ready for vaccination as early as February.
Madamba admitted that the openness of health workers to vaccination has decreased when the when they found out that the Sinovac vaccine is likely to be used.
But Madamba said he hopes that many will be convinced by the vaccination of doctors in Metro Manila on Monday and by VSMMC officials, who will be the first to be inoculated in the Visayas.
The vaccine rollout is scheduled to begin in Cebu City on Thursday.
The government’s COVID-19 vaccination program began in some hospitals in Metro Manila on Monday after about 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines donated by the Chinese government arrived on Sunday.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday the government aims to vaccinate at least 1.4 million health workers in one month.