An employee of Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City gets a COVID-19 jab during a vaccination drive conducted by the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center and the Department of Health in the university last week. (Photo courtesy of Mariano Marcos State University)
LAOAG CITY—The primary COVID-19 referral hospital in Ilocos Norte will start administering the Pfizer vaccines to eligible recipients starting Thursday, June 24.
The state-run Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) in Batac City received around 582 doses of the US-made Pfizer vaccine, according to Dr. Gretchen Ranada, MMMH&MC’s COVID-19 vaccination team leader.
These doses will be used to inoculate some of MMMH&MC’s health workers who have not yet been vaccinated against the disease, as well as senior citizens and persons with comorbidities.
Ranada said the hospital will serve as a vaccination site for those who belong to the A2 and A3 categories to speed up the vaccination drive in the community.
Aside from the MMMH&MC, its neighboring Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) will also serve as a vaccination site for those willing to get the jabs.
On June 22, MMMH&MC and MMSU completed the first-dose inoculation of at least 1,000 employees of the university under the three priority groups. The employees received CoronaVac made by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac, according to Ranada.
While in MMMH&MC, at least 1,192 of its health workers had already been fully vaccinated against the disease after they received two shots of either CoronaVac or the UK-made AstraZeneca vaccines.
Ranada said it remained important to “empower people by educating them properly about the benefits of getting vaccinated as this is the only way that we could increase the demand for the vaccine and address hesitancy.”
On June 22, around 2,340 doses of the Pfizer shots were received by the provincial government which will be administered among residents who belong to the top three priority groups.