LESS than 24 hours after the arrival of the first batch of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the Philippines, some government officials and medical frontliners had themselves inoculated Monday, March 1, 2021, to kick off the vaccination program and raise confidence in the vaccine.
Health workers at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City will be the first to get vaccine jabs in Central Visayas on Thursday, March 4, Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Assistant Secretary Anthony Gerard “Jonji” Gonzalez said in an online press conference Monday.
More than 50 percent of the VSMMC workers agreed to have themselves inoculated, said Dr. Junjie Zuasola of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health (DOH) 7.
In the first week of February, DOH 7 spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said 2,480 of 2,987 VSMMC healthcare workers agreed to be inoculated.
In the same press conference Monday, Loreche said they have yet to know how many doses of CoronaVac, the inactivated vaccine developed by Sinovac Life Sciences, will be delivered to VSMMC.