Healthcare workers at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) will receive Sinovac vaccine today at the hospital. | Morexette Marie B. Erram
CEBU CITY, Philippines — As Cebu gears for its ceremonial rollout of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, more healthcare workers here volunteered to get the shots.
Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr., chief of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), announced in a press briefing on Thursday, March 4, that there are 1,245 healthcare workers from their hospital who already consented to receive COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinovac.
“As of March 3, 1,245 of our personnel already gave their informed consent to receive the vaccines. And we are still expecting more to join,” said Aquino in a mix of English and Tagalog.
The figures were an increase compared to the 768 recorded on March 2.
Read: 600 VSMMC workers to get Sinovac this March 4
There are around 3,000 healthcare workers employed under VSMMC, Central Visayas’ largest COVID-19 referral hospital.
They are the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccines for Cebu and for the entire region.
Read: DOH: 13 who got Sinovac vaccines had ‘minor, common’ adverse effects
Aquino will be leading the ceremonial rollout and will be the first medical frontliner here at VSMMC to be administered with CoronaVac, Sinovac’s COVID-19 brand.
Aquino said he is “excited” to receive the vaccines, and continually urged his employees to participate in the national government’s COVID-19 vaccine drive. /dbs
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