PGH ready to receive any brand of Covid-19 vaccine for use of its employees

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is ready to receive and inoculate its employees any brand of Covid-19 vaccine as long as it has secured an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi said Thursday.

“Kung anuman ang bakunang darating ay tatanggapin namin at ang aming batayan sa pagtatanggap nito ay ang EUA na ibibigay ng ating FDA,” he said in a Palace briefing.

“We all know that if the FDA gives any vaccine the EUA, the safety and efficacy are assured,” Legaspi added as Malacañang announced that 600,000 doses of the China-based drugmaker Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government are set to arrive in the Philippines on Sunday, Feb. 28.

Legaspi assured that PGH is ready to receive the vaccines in terms of infrastructure and logistical requirements, as the hospital has already acquired refrigerators and freezers for vaccine storage.

“The important thing to remember here is whatever vaccine comes, we should welcome it because it will definitely make a difference in helping control the spread of this infection, and the first area where we should control it will be in the hospitals,” he said.

“Ready na po ang PGH na tumanggap ng mga bakuna kahit anumang brand ito, o kung saan man siya manggagaling,” he added.

Citing an earlier survey, Legaspi said 94% of PGH personnel have expressed willingness to get vaccinated.

However, he clarified that when the hospital staff was asked, they were expecting Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, since 117,000 doses from the American firm were initially expected to arrive in mid-February.

Meanwhile, he said 75% of the PGH personnel earlier expressed willingness to get vaccinated even before they knew what brand vaccines will be arriving.

“Bago pa man malaman ng mmga tao sa PGH noong early January kung anong bakuna ang darating, ang aming initial survey, wala pang alam kung anong bakuna, ay lumalabas na 75% are willing to have a vaccine,” Legaspi said.

“So I hope we can still get that 75% of our population and it will still be a good number,” he added.

The hospital director said they will try to “thresh out” the earlier pronouncement of the FDA that the Sinovac vaccine is not recommended for healthcare workers due to its lower efficacy rate of 50.4%.

FDA Director-General Eric Domingo earlier clarified that health workers who are not treating patients afflicted with Covid-19 can still be inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine.

/MUF