THE Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) has already started inoculating its medical frontliners with the Covid-19 booster shot on Friday, November 21, 2021.
SPMC Chief Dr. Ricardo Audan told SunStar Davao that a total of 250 doses were allocated during the pilot jab of the booster shots in the region.
“Lipay mi na una ang mga [medical] frontliners na matagaan og booster [shots] since ang frontliners ang first makakita sa mga patients. I think it’s [right] na ang unang makakuha sa booster ang mga frontliners ,” he said.
(We are happy that the medical frontliners will be prioritized in the allocation of the booster shots because they are attending to Covid-19 patients. I think it is right that the medical frontliners will be the first to receive the booster shots.)
Audan, who was the first to be inoculated with the booster shot, said he did not manifest any adverse effects following immunization (AEFI).
Notably, the SPMC chief was also the first to be inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine in Davao Region in early March this year.
He said around 600 to 800 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will be allotted per day beginning Monday, November 22, for the vaccination of booster shots to its hospital employees.
As of Sunday, only SPMC is currently inoculating its hospital workers with booster shots.
This comes days after the inoculation of booster shots started in the entire country on November 17.
Department of Health-Davao Region (DOH-Davao) Assistant Regional Director Lenny Joy Rivera said the regional office has just received the guidelines and is currently finalizing the rollout of the administration of the booster doses to the essential workers in frontline health services.
However, Rivera did not disclose the hospitals that will be prioritized in the allocation of booster shots.
For his part, Audan said SPMC was selected to be the pilot hospital for the booster shots considering the hospital has 5,686 employees, the biggest in the region compared to other hospitals in the region.
He added that SPMC is also the current main Covid-19 referral hospital, not only in Davao City but in some parts of the region.
The official said they are expecting to administer the booster shots to all its employees within this month.
Meanwhile, Audan said they still have 42 employees that are not yet vaccinated. He said some of them are still under postpartum or those who recently gave birth, while some employees are those who refused to be vaccinated due to religious beliefs, while others are still hesitant from getting vaccinated.
The official recently issued a memorandum circular mandating its unvaccinated employees to undergo weekly swab testing.
He said the hospital will shoulder the expense for the swab test only until the end of 2021, and that they will be paying for it starting next year.
Meanwhile, the hospital is also vaccinating the pediatric age groups 12 to 17 years old, both with and without comorbidities.
Audan also encouraged parents to have their children vaccinated against Covid-19 since they are also part of the vulnerable sector.