The Senate building in Pasay. (Philippine Daily Inquirer file photo)
MANILA, Philippines — Seventy-three percent of Senate employees had been vaccinated against COVID-19, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said.
“As of today, the Senate has employees vaccinated at 73 percent. 73 percent of the Senate employees are already vaccinated,” Sotto said as the upper chamber opened its plenary session Tuesday.
According to Sotto, those who have yet to be inoculated include senators themselves, as it was agreed upon earlier that the chamber’s employees would be vaccinated first before the lawmakers.
“The 27 percent includes some of us. The 27 percent who are not vaccinated yet because ang usapan natin huli tayo,” he said.
“Some of us will be vaccinated this week or this weekend,” he added.
Earlier, Sotto said that the first batch of Senate employees vaccinated against COVID-19 received the jab developed by China’s Sinovac.
The Senate also earlier sought 5,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
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Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri expressed hope that the Senate will soon be able to achieve the vaccination of all its personnel.
“Hopefully, when we return, we’ll be fully vaccinated and able to do more work during the budget deliberations,” he said.