MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) has allocated 300 doses of CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine to Ospital ng Makati for vaccination at the hospital on Friday, according to Makati Mayor Abby Binay.
Just 300 health care staff out of 364 who signed up for CoronaVac vaccination in OsMak received inoculation shots, as the DOH has only provided 300 doses to the hospital for the time being, according to the mayor.
Binay said that despite a limited number of vaccine doses, the DOH has assured Metro Manila mayors that it would provide more doses if more people are interested in receiving CoronaVac produced by Sinovac Biotech in China.
“Ang ginagawa po ng DOH lahat ho ng ospital whether public or private ang binigay po ay 300 doses, alam ko po ‘yan, dahil lahat ho kaming mayors nag-uusap kung ilan ang binigay sa aming mga ospital so kami po lahat ay 300 ang binigay,” she said in an interview with reporters.
(The DOH gives 300 doses to private or public hospitals. We, the mayors, are discussing how many doses the DOH has been giving so we all have 300.)
“In-aasure ho kami ng DOH na pag nag-increase po ‘yung interest sa pagpapabakuna bibigyan ho ng additional,” she added.
(DOH assured us that if the interest of the people to get vaccinated will increase, they will provide additional doses.)
Meanwhile, OsMak director Dr. Vergel Binay, who was the first to receive the CoronaVac at the hospital, said their healthcare workers were glad about the arrival of the vaccine as the COVID-19 patients in the hospital are mostly “high-risk” to the disease.
“Natutuwa kami kasi nagkaroon na. Mostly nagpupupunta dito sa Ospital ng Makati ay ‘yung tinatawag naming high risk, ‘yung mga severe, kaya kinakailangan talaga na mabigyan po namin ‘yung mga healthcare workers naming ng vaccine so kaya natutuwa po sila na meron na pong vaccine ngayon,” he said in a press briefing.
(We are happy because there are vaccines now. Most of the people who go here to the Ospital ng Makati are those we call “high-risk,” or those with severe cases, so our healthcare workers really need to have the vaccine.)
Around 387 staff workers of OsMak have so far been infected by COVID-19, the doctor said.
The first shipment of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac arrived in the Philippines on Sunday. The vaccine was rolled out in different hospitals in Metro Manila on Monday.
Liezelle Soriano Roy, trainee
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