The Philippines has started the rollout of its COVID-19 inoculation with a successful ceremonial vaccination conducted at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila on Monday.
The PGH is the first hospital in the country to rollout the vaccines against COVID-19 with its director Dr. Gap Legaspi as the first to receive the CoronaVac dose from the donations of China.
Several workers see the event as a symbol of renewed hope for the country which has been experiencing the massive impact of the pandemic for almost a year.
PGH head nurse Chareluck Santos, the first vaccinator of the rollout, shared she had mixed emotions administering the first vaccine dose, noting that all the hard work during the training paid off.
As of 11:24 a.m. on Monday or past an hour after the vaccination started, around 96 individuals were already vaccinated.
“We’re stopping it at 100 kasi ipinangako natin seremonya lang ito and we will prepare better for tomorrow (We’re stopping at 100 [today] because we promised that this is only ceremony and we will prepare better for tomorrow),” Legaspi stated in a briefing.
The prescribed process of rollout at PGH was followed which started from the waiting area, prescreening which covers checking of temperature, blood pressure, vital signs, the administration of the vaccine in the third stage, and monitoring in the fourth stage.
No adverse effects have been reported so far from the Sinovac-developed vaccine. The vaccination will continue until all the 12,000 doses of vaccines received by the hospital are fully utilized.
Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said in a briefing at the PGH that 25 million doses were secured from Sinovac which are expected to be rolled out before yearend.
Dr. Edsel Salavana of the health department’s technical advisory group explained CoronaVac’s 50.4 percent efficacy is for mild COVID-19. However, the Chinese vaccine is “78 percent efficacious for moderate and 100 percent efficacious for severe COVID-19.” Health experts and government leaders are encouraging the public to get the shots, to prevent the development of severe COVID-19 symptoms. – Report from Louisa Erispe, PTV News Online