HEALTH WORKERS GET PFIZER JAB
HEALTH workers in several CITIES IN METRO MANILA GOT INOCULATED WITH THE PFIZER-BIONTECH VACCINE FOR COVID-19 ON THURSDAY.
At the Sta. Ana Hospital in Manila, 222 medical workers from the city’s six district hospitals and Manila Health Department (MHD) got jabs, the Manila Public Information Office said. Manila has 5,070 government health care workers, with 3,691 of them from the six city-run hospitals and the rest from the MHD. City Health Officer Dr. Arnold Pangan urged all of Manila’s medical frontliners to get a jab while there are more than enough doses available.
On Tuesday night, the city received about 1,170 vials or 7,020 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the national government.
The vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95 percent, and its recommended storage temperature is -70 degrees Celsius, Sta. Ana Hospital Director Dr. Grace Padilla said.
As of Wednesday, 84,257 individuals in Manila had received the first dose of various vaccines, and 52,189 have received the second dose.
Health workers in Taguig City also received Pfizer jabs during the initial rollout of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Malacañang on Thursday assured the public that the 2 million AstraZeneca vaccines from the World Health Organization-led Covax Facility will be used up before they expire.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. made the assurance as he allayed concerns over the pace of the country’s vaccination rollout.
“Wala pong problema ‘yan kasi ang expiration date ay July. Mayo pa lang po. Isang buwan lang ang ating kailangan para ubusin ‘yung 2 million na AstraZeneca (There’s no problem because the expiration date is in July. It’s only May. We only need one month to use those 2 million doses of AstraZeneca),” Roque said.
Of the more than 2 million AstraZeneca vaccines that the Philippines received through the Covax Facility on May 8, 1.5 million doses will expire on June 30, 2021, while 525,600 will expire on July 31, 2021.
To avoid wasting the limited supplies, Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd earlier said that 1.5 million jabs would be administered as the first dose, while the remaining 500,000 would be allocated as the second dose.
“We will make sure nothing will expire. It will all be jabbed,” the Health chief added.
Vaccination in the country has been slow with only 514,655 people being fully inoculated since the immunization program began in March, far from the government’s goal of vaccinating 70 million. On the other hand, over 2 million individuals have received their first dose.
The country now has four brands of Covid-19 vaccines — Sinovac’s CoronaVac (China), AstraZeneca (United Kingdom), Sputnik V (Russia) and Pfizer (United States).