CALOOCAN CITY, March 1 (PIA) -- The country's COVID-19 Testing Czar and National Task Force (NTF) Deputy Chief Implementer Secretary Vince Dizon on Monday personally joined the chief and around 200 initial medical frontline workers of the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium in Tala, Caloocan City in getting the first shots of the coronavirus vaccine.
Posing with a victory sign after receiving the vaccine, Dizon had sat down with Dr. Alfonso Victorino Famaran, Jr., Medical Center Chief II, to be vaccinated against COVID-19 this morning, along with 180 health workers, who all hailed and expressed confidence in the donated CoronaVac vaccine from China's Sinovac Biotech.
The official said he is currently being monitored for his vital signs and blood pressure for about 30 minutes.
“Kakatapos ko lang po, at ngayon ay minimotor. Kaka-take lang ng aking blood pressure at vital signs so kailangan po, 30 minutes ay imonitor po muna tayo,” he confirmed in an interview by media.
Dizon, who has been actively promoting the government's response against COVID-19, also encouraged those eligible to take the vaccine and to support the immunization rollout as the Philippines kicked off its initial phase of its vaccination drive. He also put in a word of praise for the medical frontliners in the northern metro referral hospital.
It can be recalled that more than a thousand of health workers agreed to a CoronaVac shot.
Julie Anne Talimban-Soler, a nurse at the hospital, said the vaccine arrived in the hospital at around 5 a.m. this morning and vaccinations began at around 10:30 a.m.
The Tala Hospital has 1,917 staff eligible for vaccination, but only 1,165 responded to the questionnaire on their willingness to be inoculated.
The vaccination of 300,000 Filipinos, particularly health workers, against COVID-19 has begun today. Healthcare workers and other medical frontliners working in major referral hospitals in the country have been prioritized in the inoculation program, following the arrival of 600,000 doses of China-donated CoronaVac vaccines made by Sinovac Biotech pharmaceutical firm at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City on Sunday.
Aside from this hospital, included in the the Metro Manila facilities to receive the vials are the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital in Manila; East Avenue Medical Center, V. Luna Hospital, Veterans Memorial Medical Center, the PNP General Hospital and Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City. (PIA NCR)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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