Five doctors and a nurse were the first to be vaccinated in Bacolod City. (Photo courtesy of Andy Alvarez)
BACOLOD CITY—At least 6,300 doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine made by Chinese company Sinovac, arrived here on Friday (March 5).
“We are on the road to deliverance,” said Mayor Evelio Leonardia as the city’s first vaccines were injected into five doctors and a nurse.
He said he considered the arrival of the vaccines as the start of a giant leap to reach herd immunity against SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Herd immunity happens when a large part of the population of an area is immune.
“It is significant that the first COVID-19 case and the first vaccination against the virus in Western Visayas happened in Bacolod City, Leonardia said.
“We are fortunate in Bacolod that the medical profession is giving us this unconditional and full cooperation,” he added.
The five doctors and one nurse who were the first to be vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine in Bacolod were the following: Miguel Sarabia, president of the Negros Occidental Medical Society; Hector Gayares Jr., chief executive officer of the Adventist International Healthcare System Philippines; Dolores Rommela Tiples-Ruiz, president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Negros Occidental; Radela Yvonne Ramos-Cortes, an allergy expert; Carlos Javier Primicias Jr., a pediatrician and nurse Valerie Villarosa Sarabia.
Dr. Sarabia said he was grateful that the vaccines have finally arrived.
“We are glad to be the first people to receive this gift of life,” he said.
“We would like to show that we ourselves who are doctors believe that the vaccine is safe and it is good for everybody to be vaccinated so we can go back to normal again,” he added.
Sarabia said he had himself vaccinated because he is a 59-year-old who is on the frontline of the health crisis, sees patients every day and is in the operating room twice a week. He said he needed protection so his patients would also be safe.
“The Sinovac vaccine has a 100 percent safety rate for serious COVID-19,” he said. “That means everyone who was injected with Sinovac all over the world need not die,” he said.