The first batch of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines is expected to arrive this February, which will be first given to frontliners working in referral hospitals.
That is why experts have laid out some things that patients, as well as vaccination hospitals, should keep in mind.
According to infectious disease expert Rontgene Solante, patients have something to keep in mind on the day of vaccination.
First, the vaccine recipient should be asymptomatic. The patient should also be able to rest properly.
“Dapat wala kang symptoms, walang lagnat, ubo. A day before the vaccination, you have to prepare yourself. Good rest para maganda ang pakiramdam mo. You still have to wear face mask and face shield,” Solante said in an interview with Teleradyo.
According to Lito Acuin, hospital chief of the Asian Medical Center, it is necessary to maintain minimum health standards until vaccination.
“Every detail counts. you’re only as good as the level of detail in the planning and execution that you can muster in this exercise. The notion of staff safety, it’s good. There’s a fiesta atmosphere, everybody’s having a reunion. But the thing is, we need to maintain minimum standards of safety even during vaccination,” said Acuin.
After being vaccinated, it is necessary to monitor yourself if you are feeling something different.
Things to remember before getting COVID-19 vaccine
Health frontliners, on the other hand, stressed that care should be taken to prepare for the arrival of the vaccine.
Christia Padolina, health officer of Navotas, described it as “like gold” when it comes to vaccines coming into the country.
117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility are expected to arrive this February.
It will be given to medical frontliners at COVID-19 referral hospitals, most of which are in Metro Manila, which experts consider the country’s epicenter virus.
Referral hospitals include the Philippine General Hospital, which prepares to ensure that vaccines are not wasted. Five people can be vaccinated in one vial.
“Apparently, if you do it very well, you can do 6 0.3 ML doses in contrast to the 5 initially instructed to us. we don’t know if we can do that to the real vaccine because the vaccine is more viscous and maybe harder to aspirate. we intend to find out with the real vaccine if we can go up to 6 and use more of the vials allotted to us,” said PGH director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi.