By Rod Lagusad
Around 200 employees of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) were inoculated as the agency rolled out vaccines for employees who are senior citizens or have comorbidities.
MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos said the agency recorded 771 COVID-19 cases, with 100 currently active cases.
He added that around eight employees were reported to have died due to COVID-19.
“Kinakailangan ito lalo na sa aming mga frontliners, ‘yan nakikita mo naman nasa kalye sila araw-araw eh, ‘yung clearing namin, tapos kaya inuna namin ‘yung priority list na ibinibigay sa amin ng Department of Health,” Abalos said.
[We need it especially for our frontliners, you see them in the streets everyday because of our clearing activities, so we went by the priority list given to us by the Department of Health.]
Abalos also said there is no vaccine hesitation among the employees, some of whom are
frontliners assigned to departments such as Flood Control, Traffic Management, and Garbage Collection.
CoronaVac, developed by Sinovac Biotech of China, was the vaccine used by the MMDA for their rollout.
“Sa totoo lang, alam mo nakikita naman natin sa buong mundo nagkakaubusan ng bakuna. Ang sa amin lang, our employees kamukha nila, everyday nasa kalye sila, kung sinu-sino kausap nila, proteksyon ito sa kanila at sa pamilya nila — at hindi lamang ‘yun, pati na rin ‘yung kinakausap nila,” Abalos said.
[In all honesty, you can see there is a shortage of vaccines around the world. On our end, our employees like those who are on the road everyday, talking to all sorts of people, this is for their and their families’ protection — and not only that, for the people they talk to.]
Abalos has been vaccinated with CoronaVac.
Meanwhile, Antonio Lumanog, 50, from the MMDA’s Flood Control Sewerage Management Office, is one of the employees who grabbed the chance to be vaccinated today.
He said he decided to be inoculated because he has hypertension.
“At least nabawasan ‘yung kaba namin, ‘yung COVID hindi natin alam kailan siya darating, ‘di ba. Actually ‘yung office namin may nag-positive na, kasi dati nung nagpa-swab kami… buti na lang nag-negative ako,” Lumamog said.
[At least we are less fearful, because we don’t know when COVID will strike. Actually someone in our office has tested positive…we had a swab test before, good thing I tested negative.]
Lumanog added that the vaccine will be a big help because in their line of work they deal with many people every day.
