Mandaue City vaccine board chair, Ernie Manatad.
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Some 139 senior citizens in Mandaue City received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine today, May 21, 2021.
The city started the rollout of Pfizer vaccines today at the Chong Hua Hospital-Mandaue.
Subangdaku Barangay Captain Ernie Manatad, chairman of the city’s COVID-19 vaccine board, said only 139 senior citizens were vaccinated today out of 234 pre-identified vaccinees endorsed.
The city received 1,170 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) last May 13.
The vaccination site for the Pfizer vaccine in the city is the Chong Hua Hospital-Mandaue.
Overall, there are now at least 3,000 senior citizens of the city’s more than 24,000 registered seniors who received their first dose.
Meanwhile, Manatad said the vaccine board supports the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) directive to all local government units (LGUs) to refrain from announcing the brand of vaccines to be used in particular vaccination centers.
He said they concurred with the new policy that was recommended by the Department of Health to prevent gatherings.
“Ang purpose nga naa tay authority to use, meaning all vaccines inoculated by the government is safe and kuan jud na siya effective,” said Manatad.
He said vaccinees will still be informed of the brand in the vaccination center and if they don’t like the available brand they can refuse and can still go back.
Manatad said there were walk-in seniors during the roll-out of the Pfizer vaccines at the Chong Hua Hospital which they endorsed to the city’s Sports Complex and UCLM campus’ new building because they have already pre-identified the vaccinees who would receive the Pfizer vaccines.
“Wala man mi nakasuway ana (gibalibaran). In fact karun gani dunay mga niari because they heard nga Pfizer nag walk-in ba niya na pre-identified baya na to ni (Pfizer). Katung gibalibaran dinhi niana nsila unha may available vaccine dinha kay magpaturok mi amo silang offer tua may Astra didto, ah sige adto mi,” said Manatad. /rcg