Almost 98% of Makati Med staff vaccinated against COVID-19

Makati Medical Center Facebook photo

MANILA, Philippines — Almost 98 percent of the staff at the Makati Medical Center (MMC) have already been vaccinated against COVID-19, its medical director said Wednesday.

Dr. Saturnino Javier said the hospital had been actively vaccinating its personnel with available supply even during the surge of COVID-19 cases in the previous months.

“Despite the massive surge, we were relentlessly pursuing our vaccination rollout across all hospital demographics and to date we’ve been able to vaccinate close to 98 percent already of our healthcare personnel after both doses of AstraZeneca and Sinovac have been given,” he said in an online discussion with the media.

He cited various reasons why the remaining percentage of hospital personnel have yet to be vaccinated, including their preference for other brands or exposure to COVID-19 patients.

“They are not yet vaccinated because they are waiting for something else like Pfizer or Moderna. The other [reason] is they have been exposed to COVID, so they are still in quarantine,” said Javier.

“The others have previous reactions to allergies, allergic reactions, or severe reactions, which is why there is major fear involved,” he added.

Javier said the MMC had adopted a policy not to force its staff to be vaccinated against their will.

So far, the country has administered a total of 8.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with six million individuals receiving their first dose and over two million who have already received their second dose.

READ: Over 2M Filipinos have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine — NTF

A total of 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered as first shots to healthcare workers, who are the first priority in the vaccination rollout. Meanwhile, over 1.06 million doses have been provided as second doses to medical frontliners.