(FILE) Public school teachers receive the Sinovac jab through the COVID-19 vaccination effort of the City Government of Manila on Tuesday, April 13, at Palacio de Maynila, Roxas Boulevard.-INQUIRER/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — Some 190 Senate employees have received their first dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine according to Senate President Vicente Sotto III.
Sotto, in an online interview with reporters Thursday, said the vaccination of Senate workers started last Friday.
Those who got vaccinated are all under the A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities) category of the government’s priority list, according to Sotto.
“Two hundred muna nung isang araw, 190 lang yung na-vaccinate sapagkat yung 10 masyadong matataas ang BP (blood pressure) ayaw ng mga doktor na i-vaccinate. They will have to come back another day na medyo relaxed na sila,” the Senate President said.
Meanwhile, Sotto said the Senate will start inoculating its employees with the Sputnik V vaccine developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute on Monday.
Asked when he would get himself vaccinated, Sotto said he has yet to be scheduled for inoculation.
Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the chamber has sought to obtain 5,000 doses of the Sputnik V jab for the vaccination of its employees to ensure that legislative work will not be “paralyzed.”
“Mahuli na po ang mga senador. Unahin na muna natin ang ating mga (The senators can go last, we will prioritize our) staff…All the senators can do teleconferencing,” Zubiri said before Congress went on break in March.
“Still, in the absence of our staff, especially the secretariat, we cannot pass legislation. If we cannot pass legislation, one branch of government is paralyzed,” he added.