MORE than 14,000 healthcare workers in Davao City from both public and private hospitals have been inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine since the first dose was rolled out in March this year.
City Health Office (CHO) Acting Head Dr. Ashley Lopez said in a radio interview that the total number of healthcare workers who received the Covid-19 vaccines is 63 percent of the targeted 22,000 healthcare workers.
Of the 14,000, about 4,557 already received their second dose of Sinovac’s CoronaVac.
“We target to vaccinate more or less 22,000 from Group A1 so we still have to vaccinate 7,000 plus healthcare workers,” Lopez said on Wednesday, April 14, in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
Lopez said the city is already in the Letter G category under Priority Group A1.
Letter G category includes those workers in stand-alone facilities, clinics, and diagnostic centers. Their vaccination is ongoing at Magallanes Elementary School.
He said that as soon as the priority group A1 will be completed, Group A2 or the senior citizens' vaccination will commence. However, this would still depend on the supply of the vaccines.
“Kung wala lay interruption sa atoang supplies sa atoang vaccines, sa delivery and allocations (If there is no interruption in the delivery and allocation of vaccine supplies), then probably by May we start with senior citizens,” he said.
In the morning of April 14, 28,400 doses of Sinovac’s Coronavac arrived at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport, also known as Davao International Airport. The allocation for Davao City is yet unknown, but Lopez is hopeful that this could speed up the vaccination of city frontline healthcare workers.
He said they would still have to determine the number of doses the city will be receiving from the 28,400 doses.
Meanwhile, Lopez said the city is still waiting for clearance from the national government for the rollout of the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccines following reports about the vaccine brand’s side effects linking to blood clots and low platelet counts in some countries.
The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday, April 8, 2021, adopted the recommendation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for adults under 60 years old.
Lopez said they are supposed to inoculate the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine in the first week of May this year, but the DOH is still investigating reports about the vaccine.
He said the second dose must be given from 60 to 90 days since the first shot was given.
The official said in case DOH will still not permit the inoculation of AstraZeneca, those inoculated with the vaccine brand would have to wait for six months to get another brand.