404 healthcare workers so far complete COVID-19 vaccine doses – DOH

MANILA, Philippines — Some 404 healthcare workers had received their second COVID-19 vaccine dose, a Department of Health (DOH) official told House lawmakers on Tuesday.

According to DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, the government began administering the second COVID-19 vaccine dose to medical frontline personnel on Monday, March 29.

“We already started the second dose of our vaccines. Because we started vaccinating March 1st,” she said during a House health committee hearing, noting that the second vaccine dose should be administered 22 to 28 days after the first dose was given.

“A total of 404 individuals have already completed their dose,” she added.

All who completed their vaccine doses are from the National Capital Area, according to Cabotaje’s presentation before the committee.

So far, 698,353 healthcare workers across the country have been given their first vaccine dose.

According to Cabotaje, there are 300,000 doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac initially allocated to administer the second dose.

The country started its vaccination rollout on Mar. 1 following the arrival of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccine from Sinovac Biotech which the Chinese government donated

On March 4, 487,200 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from British-Swede firm AstraZeneca arrived in the country through the Covax facility. This was followed by another set of 38,400 doses that arrived on March 7.

The country also received 1 million government-procured doses of Sinovac’s vaccine on Mar. 29.

READ: Procured 1-M doses of CoronaVac arrive in PH

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