Vials of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine are pictured at a vaccination centre in Bierset, Belgium March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Central Visayas, as of March 18, is yet to achieve a 50 percent success rate in the vaccination of all healthcare workers against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
In a recent press conference, the Department of Health here (DOH-7) reported that the region posted an accomplishment rate of 39.2 percent in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout program.
This means that of the more than 54,000 healthcare workers identified to receive free COVID-19 vaccines from the national government, only 21,441 were jabbed as of March 18.
“We’re still quite behind and we really need to catch up immediately to comply and complete our (first) doses for our healthcare workers,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, the DOH-7 spokesperson.
DOH-7 said a total of 58 hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the region already received their supplies of COVID-19 vaccines for their frontline workers. But only 24 have managed to complete their inoculation schedules for the first dose of Sinovac.
This prompted Loreche to remind hospitals and other healthcare institutions that received the vaccine doses to “ramp up their vaccination schedules.”
Of the 21,441 medical frontliners in Central Visayas who were administered with COVID-19 vaccines, 14,254 received China’s Sinovac while the remaining 7,187 had UK’s AstraZeneca.
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Loreche also disclosed that 673 healthcare workers jabbed reported experiencing mild adverse reactions. Of this number, 422 were inoculated with AstraZeneca while 251 with Sinovac.
“Fortunately, there are no reports of serious adverse effects but we are closely monitoring those with mild adverse reactions. They have to be closely monitored,” she explained.
Central Visayas has already received at least 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from two brands – CoronaVac by Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
Both vaccine brands formed part of the donations the Philippine government got from the Chinese government and European nations respectively. / dcb