A total of 30 individuals were vaccinated against COVID-19 at the V. Luna Medical Center during the first day of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the Philippines.
The hospital received 600 doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac, from the Department of National Defense’s total allocation of 100,000 shots.
The vaccination will continue in the following days.
“180,000 lahat ng armed forces including the civilian force, so ang kailangan natin diyan siguro 360,000 (There are 180,000 in the armed forces including civilian force, so we may need 360,000 [doses]),” DND Sec. Delfin Lorenzana cited.
Vaccination is mandatory in the armed forces, with the Army set to hold its vaccination ceremony at the Army General Hospital, the Philippine Navy at Manila Naval Hospital, and the Air Force at the Philippine Air Force General Hospital in Villamor Air Base.
Military Nurse First Lieutenant Manuel III Gentoba who has been on duty at the mega quarantine center in Paraῆaque is among the first to receive the shot in the military.
He said he wants to influence others to have the vaccine. He was inoculated together with the other officials of the hospital, including Col. Fatima Claire Navarro, the commanding officer whom Health Secretary Francisco Duque III personally vaccinated.
Other medical frontliners have welcomed the actual rollout of the vaccine, even considering it as a privilege to be injected with the Sinovac vaccine. – Report from Karen Villanda
