Entire health workforce of Ilocos Norte hospital registers for COVID-19 vaccination

Health workers in Ilocos Norte participate in the province’s first COVID-19 vaccination simulation exercise in Solsona town on Feb. 16. All health workers of the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center, the biggest public hospital in Ilocos Norte, have registered to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte provincial government

BATAC CITY — One hundred percent of the health workers of the biggest public hospital in Ilocos Norte would want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), hospital officials said on Thursday, Feb. 18.

According to Jhey-ar Mangati, health education and promotions officer of Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) here, a survey run by the Department of Health (DOH) in the hospital showed that all of its 1,060 health workers have registered to be vaccinated.

Mangati said health workers from all COVID-19 referral facilities of the DOH in the country would be given priority on the vaccine distribution.

MMMH&MC is a COVID-19 referral facility of DOH in the Ilocos region.

Dr. Maria Lourdes Otayza, chief of MMMH&MC, said the willingness of public health workers to be vaccinated is not only a matter of personal protection, but it would also help the national government’s aim for the country to reach herd immunity from COVID-19 by 2023.

The hospital has also allocated around P1 million that was used to purchase at least two ultra-low freezers capable of storing the COVID-19 vaccines, which require temperatures as low as minus 70 to minus 80 degrees Celsius, Mangati said.

LZB