QC mayor Belmonte gets first dose of COVID-19 vaccine

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte shows her arm where she got the Sinovac anti-COVID shot on May 24, 2021. Photo from QC

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Monday received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

In a statement on Monday, Belmonte said she got her vaccine at 1 p.m. at a vaccination site in Ateneo de Manila University.

She received the Chinese drugmaker Sinovac BioTech’s CoronaVac vaccine, she said.

“Although I am part of the A1 category, I decided to wait until most of those in the identified priority groups had been vaccinated. Also, after just recovering from COVID-19 last month, I did not see the need for me to be vaccinated immediately,” she said.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte getting her first dose of Sinovac vaccine in this photo taken on May 24, 2021. Photo from QC-PAISD

Governors and mayors are now in priority group A1.5 regardless of the risk classification of their respective local government units.

Previously, only governors and mayors within critical or high-risk areas for COVID-19 transmission were part of A1.5.

She said she decided to get vaccinated since she already contracted COVID-19 twice.

“Dahil dalawang beses kong naranasang magka-COVID-19, batid ko ang kahalagahan ng bakuna upang maiwasan ang pagkakaroon ng malalang sakit na dulot ng virus,” she said.

(Because I experienced COVID-19 twice, I feel the importance of the vaccine to prevent having serious illness brought by the virus.)

“I hope that by having been vaccinated, I could encourage more QCitizens to get inoculated too against COVID-19,” she added.

JPV