Let’s get the vaccines rolling
Our long wait is over. The first batches of vaccine that we have been waiting for are now here, and our vaccination rollout has finally started.
Last Sunday, 28 February, I was one of the government officials who accompanied President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Villamor Air Base where we personally witnessed the arrival of the 600,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine that was donated to us by China.
We are grateful to China, our long-time ally, for once again showing that it is our friend indeed even in these challenging times. The presence of the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine is likewise a clear demonstration of the independent foreign policy that our President chartered, where the Philippines is a friend to all and enemies to none.
President Duterte called this “a gesture of friendship and solidarity” and “the hallmark of Philippines-China friendship.”
With the arrival of Sinovac, we were able to officially launch our national vaccine program with the symbolic vaccination of our frontline medical workers and some government officials in some of our hospitals in Metro Manila yesterday, 1 March 2021.
No less than the medical director of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), Dr. Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi, became the first person in the Philippines to be officially inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine.
In a show of nationalism and to help boost vaccine confidence among his fellow medical frontliners, Dr. Legaspi did not hesitate to take the first jab of the Sinovac vaccine, which he believes is an effective vaccine even for health care workers like himself.
Along with the PGH, the vaccination program also started in other hospitals, namely, the
Lung Center of the Philippines, Dr. Jose
N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital or Tala Hospital, Veterans Memorial Medical Center/V. Luna Medical Center, and the PNP General Hospital.
Today, 2 March, a symbolic vaccination will be initiated in Pasig City General Hospital, Amang Rodriguez Medical Center, Pasay City General Hospital, Taguig-Pateros District Hospital and Sta. Ana Hospital.
Also scheduled today for symbolic vaccination, which will continue to full rollout, are military hospitals. These are the Philippine Air Force General Hospital, Manila Naval Hospital, Army General Hospital and Camp Aguinaldo Station Hospital.
Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City and Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City are scheduled on 4 and 5 March, respectively.
We continue to be grateful to everyone — from our medical frontliners to our fellow Filipinos and foreign partners — who stands by us in this challenging times.
The Philippines’ vaccine rollout has officially started, and I encourage every eligible Filipino to take part in this vaccination campaign to help revive our economy and bring back our normal ways of living.
As you have heard from our experts
— the medical doctors themselves
— the vaccines are safe and effective, and the faster that we vaccinate our population, the better it is for the country and for our people.
With the presence of vaccines against Covid-19 in our own shores, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The arrival of the first batches of coronavirus vaccine is a giant step to our healing and recovery as a people and as a nation.
“As you have heard from our experts the vaccines are safe and effective, and the faster that we vaccinate our population, the better it is for the country and for our people.
“With the arrival of Sinovac, we were able to officially launch our national vaccine program with the symbolic vaccination of our frontline medical workers and some government officials.