AROUND 20,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 are set to arrive in Central Visayas on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.
This was confirmed by Department of Health 7 spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche during a Project Balik Buhay (PBB) briefing on Tuesday, March 9, the sixth day of the vaccination rollout in the region.
The Philippines is the 16th country worldwide and the third Asean member-nation to receive vaccines from the Covax facility within the first few days of its global rollout.
The vaccines, donated by the Covax facility, were transported by Unicef via a commercial flight of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines earlier this week.
The AstraZeneca vaccines will be stored in the DOH 7 cold chain storage.
Loreche said they are still in the planning stage for the distribution, but she said the DOH 7 emphasized that healthcare workers (HCWs) in their 60s and above will get the vaccine jabs first and the excess will be rolled out to other HCWs ages 18 to 59.
CoronaVac jabs
Some private hospitals in Cebu have started vaccinating their healthcare workers with CoronaVac, a vaccine developed by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd., that was provided by the National Government.
The first private hospital in Cebu to vaccinate its frontline workers was the Cebu City branch of Chong Hua Hospital (CHH) on Monday, March 8.
CHH was allocated more than 3,500 doses of CoronaVac by the DOH 7, and the hospital already started its initial rollout on Monday with 160 frontliners vaccinated. The vaccination of frontliners continued on Tuesday, March 9.
On Tuesday, March 9, other private hospitals, Perpetual Succour Hospital and Cebu Doctors’ University-Hospital (CDUH), also inoculated medical frontliners and other vital staff members from their administration, maintenance and security.
Loreche said CHH Cebu City has an allocation of 2,468 CoronaVac doses; CHH Mandaue City, 1,111; CDUH or CebuDoc, 1,585; Cebu South General Hospital (SouthGen), 414; Cebu North General Hospital (NorthGen), 364; and Mactan Doctors’ Hospital (MactanDoc), 560. CebuDoc, MactanDoc, NorthGen and SouthGen are part of the CebuDoc Group.
Around 70 percent of the CHH staff, including doctors, nurses, maintenance, security and other support staff, agreed to be vaccinated with CoronaVac. As of 3:30 p.m., 245 CebuDoc Group health workers had been vaccinated and only two experienced adverse effects.
Positive response
Dr. Faith Villanueva, an infectious disease specialist and head of CHH’s head of Covid-19 vaccination task group, described the turnout as a positive response and a boost of confidence to the country’s ongoing nationwide vaccination program.
CebuDoc Group also started its vaccination program against Covid-19 on its healthcare workers on Tuesday, with a ceremonial vaccination held at the CebuDoc Group Vaccination Center located at the parking area of Medical Arts Building 1.
Dr. Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III, president and chairman of the board, received the first dose of CoronaVac to kick off the vaccination rollout in CebuDoc Group and to boost the confidence of CebuDoc Group Healthcare workers in the vaccine.
“Vaccination is the way to go if we want to attain herd immunity,” he said in a press statement, adding, “I believe the best vaccine is the first vaccine on hand.”
The Covid-19 vaccine recipients will be given two doses. They will also undergo a six-step process—registration, orientation, assessment, actual vaccination, post-vaccination monitoring, and post-vaccination documentation.
For the first batch, 1,460 out of the nearly 3,000 healthcare workers of CebuDoc Group are expected to get vaccinated from March 9 to 12, 2021. They will receive the second dose after a month.
“This is just the beginning. Once all our frontliners are already inoculated, we also hope to roll out our supplementary vaccination for our family members. We will also be extending assistance to the different LGUs (local government units) in Cebu for the vaccination of the Cebuanos,” Larrazabal said.
Sinovac’s CoronaVac is the third Covid-19 vaccine brand to be approved for emergency use after Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca.
Larrazabal said they are ready for future mass vaccination programs.
“We have systems in place. Our team is ready to do the mass vaccination once the LGUs and other sectors start tapping us to administer their vaccination,” he said.
At Perpetual Succour Hospital (PSH) in Cebu City, 120 of its employees—doctors (70 percent), and nurses, allied health professionals and security personnel (30 percent)—were inoculated with CoronaVac during its rollout of the vaccination Tuesday.
The CoronaVac will be administered to health workers who are 18 years old up to 59 years old; however, PSH will allow health workers above 60 years old to be vaccinated as long as they sign a waiver, said Dr. Elrey Inocian, head of the PSH vaccination team.
On Tuesday, PSH medical professionals Dr. Fe Marie Perez, 62, and her husband Dr. Monico Perez, 63, were vaccinated with CoronaVac.
Monico said they have friends in Hong Kong who were vaccinated with CoronaVac who told them that there is no age qualification to get the vaccine.
Monico and his wife decided to get inoculated because it is better to feel the adverse effects than to get infected with Covid-19.
Dr. Ian Teodorico, an allergy specialist and head of the post-vaccination and monitoring team of PSH, was one of the doctors vaccinated at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
Teodorico has a history of allergic rhinitis, severe atopic and allergic reactions to crabs. Despite his condition, he did not feel any adverse effects after he was vaccinated.
He said being allergic to food or medicine is not a contraindication against the vaccine as it has different components. So, he said, there is no need to be afraid of getting vaccinated since there is a specialist who will monitor the recipient’s condition.
After the vaccination, the recipient will have to be monitored on-site for 30 minutes to an hour, then they are advised to go home and rest.
Teodorico said they will continue to monitor the condition of the recipients for the next four hours for any adverse effects.
He said the adverse effects will only last one to three days, and the easy remedy includes taking paracetamol and other pain relievers.
More than 50 percent of PSH health workers, or nearly 600 out of 1,107 employees, agreed to be inoculated. The hospital’s first vaccination rollout will end on Sunday, March 14.
The rest of the PSH medical workers who chose not to get CoronaVac jabs said they will wait for the other vaccine brands to arrive, said Inocian.
Recipients
Loreche said 12 private and public hospitals in Central Visayas already received the CoronaVac doses allocated for them, while 28 medical institutions are set to receive their vaccines.
As of March 9, a total of 1,904 VSMMC health workers had been vaccinated. Of the number, 52 experienced adverse effects.
Some of the adverse effects felt by the vaccine recipients were lightheadedness, dizziness, feeling tired, numbness at the injection site, itching, hypertension, headache and fainting.
In Bohol, a total of 277 medical workers at Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital have been vaccinated since March 5.
Also on Tuesday, the vaccination at Lapu-Lapu City Hospital started, and the first recipient was its administrator, Dr. Ronald Oporto. Mayor Junard Chan attended the event, but he was not inoculated as the medical frontliners are prioritized to receive the CoronaVac jabs.
Oporto said 102 hospital personnel will be vaccinated in the next three days.
Teachers encouraged
At the Department of Education in Cebu, Dr. Marilyn Andales, Cebu Province Schools Division superintendent, urged her fellow teachers to get inoculated if it is already time for their vaccination.
There were teachers who agreed to get the vaccine.
However, Andales said there were teachers who feared the Covid-19 vaccine would cause them to fall ill, while others said they would choose not to receive the vaccine because they have pre-existing illnesses. (JOB, KFD, GCM, ANV)