I finally got my second dose of the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine last week.
I only qualified because I belong to the A3 priority group, meaning I have a comorbidity.
Anyway, our office registered for the Project Balik Buhay (PBB) Vaccination Initiative of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas.
Let me start by saying that my vaccination experience at the Chong Hua Hospital in Mandaue City was very good. The staff were very courteous. They were very organized. They knew what they were doing. And that always helps.
The registration, the screening, the injection and the monitoring took less than an hour and a half. For both doses.
The wonders that happen when the government and the private sector share a goal and get together to reach it.
I don’t know if Metro Manila and Metro Davao have something similar to the PBB, but if they don’t, they should replicate it.
The PBB, after all, “serves as a road map for businesses to open safely” as Cebu’s economy starts to pick up the pieces after the devastation wrought by the longest lockdown in the world.
But wait! The PBB was initiated in Cebu. So it’s not good enough for the rest of the country.
Look what happened to the swab-upon-arrival policy adopted by the Provincial Government under Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
Returning overseas Filipinos only have to pay for a maximum of three nights in a quarantine hotel while they await the result of their RT-PCR test instead of the 10 days mandated by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases. If they test negative, then they’re allowed to go but they must undergo “facility or home quarantine” for the remainder of the IATF-mandated 14-day quarantine for inbound travelers.
Of course, if they test positive, then they must abide by existing treatment protocols.
Not only that, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration will also end up saving money since it shoulders the cost of quarantine hotels for overseas Filipino workers.
But instead of adopting this policy or acknowledging its cost-effectiveness, the national government diverted all international flights bound for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila.
So where was I? Oh yes, I’m fully vaccinated.
Do I feel any different? No. Do I get any special perks for getting inoculated? Heck no. I’m still required to fill up those forms when entering banks and other establishments and wear a mask and a face shield.
Listen, I don’t mind the face mask. Really, I don’t. But I have checked the Covid-19 guidelines of other countries and I don’t see them requiring their citizens to don a face mask and a face shield at the same time.
Anyway, earlier in the week I had to go back to the office to get my face shield otherwise I wouldn’t be able to enter the bank across the road. And you don’t get in without filling the form. So while I was jotting down my details, I looked up to the security guard and asked, “Have you been vaccinated?”
“No,” he replied.