SHOT IN THE ARM Health Secretary Francisco Duque III administers the China-made CoronaVac to fellow doctor Eileen Aniceto of Lung Center of the Philippines as the government starts its COVID-19 vaccination drive in select public hospitals in Metro Manila on Monday. The first shipment of donated vaccines from the Chinese government is a shot in the arm for the country’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic while supplies from other manufacturers have yet to arrive. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — The first day of the government’s vaccination rollout has been “quite satisfactory” and was filled with “ pride and joy,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Tuesday.
According to Duque, a total of 756 were inoculated during the kick-off of the country’s inoculation drive in several hospitals.
“Yesterday’s rollout was quite satisfactory and there was much pride and joy in seeing that at long last, the health care workers had started to receive their vaccination, protection against Covid-19,” the health chief said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.
“And it was really quite heartwarming to witness the historic event… The total was 756 as of last reporting period yesterday,” he added.
The Philippines was able to kickstart its Covid-19 vaccination program after receiving some 600,000 doses of the vaccine developed by China-based Sinovac.
It was Philippine General Hospital (PGH) director Dr. Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi who received the country’s first authorized vaccine shot.
Food and Drug Administration director-general Eric Domingo as well as Dr. Edsel Salvana, director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the National Institutes of Health at the University of the Philippines Manila, were also among the first to be inoculated in the country.
Government officials were also vaccinated during the first day of the inoculation drive namely vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., National Task Force against Covid-19 deputy implementer Vince Dizon and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Benhur Abalos.
The vaccine doses donated by China will be administered to 216,000 people in Metro Manila, Baguio City, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and Bicol, the vaccine czar earlier said.
Some 26,000 people will be vaccinated in the Visayas and 24,000 will be vaccinated in Mindanao.
Galvez noted there will be more or less 70,000 doses left for 35,000 people. The remaining doses may be reallocated, he added, “just in case the uptake increases.”
Sinovac vaccines are slated to be delivered to Cebu City and Davao City in the first week of March.
EDV