VACCINE ROLLOUT A SUCCESS – PALACE
THE first day of the coronavirus disease 2019 disease (Covid-19) vaccine rollout was a success, Malacañang said on Tuesday, a day after ceremonial inoculations were conducted using Sinovac Biotech’s vaccine.
“Naging napakatagumpay po ng Day 1 ng ating national Covid-19 vaccination program (The first day of our national Covid-19 vaccination program has been very successful),” Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said.
He added that the rollout gave medical frontliners peace of mind.
“Maligaya po ang ating mga medical frontliners kasi nga po nagkaroon sila ng peace of mind na bagamat sila po ay exposed dito sa [coronavirus] ay meron na silang proteksyon ngayon (Medical frontliners were very happy because they now have peace of mind, while they have been exposed to the coronavirus, but now they have protection),” he said.
Roque bared that 756 individuals were vaccinated on Monday in various hospitals.
Inoculations continued on Tuesday at the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, Pasay General Hospital, Sta. Ana Hospital in Manila and Taguig-Pateros District Hospital, among others. In a televised meeting of some members of the Duterte Cabinet on Monday, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said St. Luke’s Medical Hospital, a private hospital, asked for 5,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine for its personnel. “We will have a mini rollout at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Global (Taguig) and in Quezon City to increase vaccine uptake,” he said Duterte thanked St. Luke’s for its support to the government’s immunization drive. “We appreciate any and every cooperation offered to us at this time,” he said Roque addressed criticisms on the hospital’s receipt of vaccines from the government. He said private hospitals were also a priority in the nationwide vaccination not just public hospitals and their frontliners.
The vaccine rollout at St. Luke’s will be held on March 3, Wednesday.
On March 4, the government will begin the vaccine rollout in the Visayas, with the inoculation of frontliners at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu and on March 5 it will begin in Mindanao with the vaccination of personnel of the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, he said.
Allocation per region
Of the 600,000 Sinovac doses, 130,742 doses have been allocated for the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) — the epicenter of the Covid-19 transmission in the Philippines.
Roque said 1,115 doses were allocated for Region 4A (Calabarzon), 11,537 for Region 3 (Central Luzon) and 3,279 for the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Region 1 (Ilocos) will get 7,092; Region 2 (Cagayan Valley), 4,994; Region 4B (Mimaropa), 1,562; and Region 5 (Bicol) 5,191 doses.
The Visayas, the country’s thirdlargest group of islands, will get 26,296 doses.
Region 6 (Western Visayas) will receive 8,438, Region 7 (Central Visayas) will get 13, 923 and Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), some 3,935 doses.
Mindanao will get 24,642 vaccine doses.
Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) will get 3,417; Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), 7,239; Region 11 (Davao), 8,004; and Region 12 (Soccsksargen), 8,705 vaccine doses.
Region 13 (Caraga) will get 3,044 vaccine doses and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 940 doses of Sinovac vaccines.
No side effects
Meanwhile, only two of the officials of the country’s pandemic task force got inoculated on Monday.
They were vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and testing czar Vivencio Dizon.
According to Dizon, also the deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force Against Covid-19, he did not experience side effects after taking the vaccine.
“Wala pong nararamdaman, walang lagnat, wala pong pananakit ng katawan, walang pananakit ng braso, wala pong allergy (I don’t feel any side effects, no fever, no muscle aches, no arm pain and no allergy),” he said, adding, “Awa ng Diyos, very normal po (By God’s grace, I feel very normal).”
He was inoculated at Tala hospital.
Milestone
Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go also on Tuesday lauded the national government and the rest of Team Philippines for the successful rollout of the vaccination program.
“I am happy that today marks a milestone in our journey as one people toward recovery from this pandemic,” he said in a statement.
The senator added that the start of the vaccination program sparked hope for the country to move forward to the new normal.
He said Filipinos should not be complacent as the virus still exists.
The Department of Health said it was also pleased with the results of the first day of the vaccine rollout.
According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, officials were satisfied with how the vaccinations went on Monday and Tuesday.
She said during the Laging Handa briefing that some health workers were inspired by the vaccination done by their heads of hospitals and prominent specialists.
Hospitals were also given the freedom to determine how many doses they can give to their health workers, citing reluctance of the latter to be inoculated.
The Health department said it would allow these hospitals to add more doses of CoronaVac made by Chinese firm Sinovac if their healthworkers want it.
Twenty individuals experienced mild adverse events following immunization (AEFI), which included dizziness, high blood pressure, pain in the injection site, headaches, nausea and skin rashes,
All of them were not admitted to the hospital and were later sent home after being managed and observed. Vergeire said these cases of AEFI are being studied by the National AEFI Committee to determine if these cases are related to the vaccine or not.
“There is anxiety or fear-releated symptoms…We should remain relaxed and we should not be afraid of being injected…We should also not be scared that we may get adverse reactions,” Vergeire said. WITH REPORTS FROM JAVIER JOE ISMAEL AND RED MENDOZA