About 3,200 or 60 percent of the 5,000 Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) health care workers and employees have registered for Davao City’s COVID-19 vaccine immunization program as the first delivery of the first tranche of vaccine allocation from the national government is expected to arrive on Friday, February 12.
Davao City Health Office (CHO) acting head Dr. Ashley Lopez, also the city’s COVID-19 focal person, bared this during the COVID-19 Alert program aired via Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR).
Lopez said, “Almost 40 percent nagduha-duha pa.”
He said that not all 3,200 may get vaccinated as others might later decide not to push through with it or others who are currently undecided may also change their mind and eventually get immunized.
The SPMC health care workers, along with other medical frontliners from private hospitals and medical-affiliated institutions, belong to the Priority 1A list of the Davao City COVID-19 Immunization Program, which is aligned with the national government’s initiative. They will be the first ones to be administered with the COVID-19 vaccines.
“Naa man jud nay process o stages. First, mu-undergo og screening. Although initially naa ka na sa master list o nakaparehistro ka na then in the last hour di ka na magpabukana. Pwede ra na i withdraw sa screening area” Lopez said.
Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte, in one of the recent episodes of her DCDR program, said the COVID-19 vaccination is voluntary and nobody will be forced to avail of the immunization program.
The “An Ordinance For The Implementation of the COVID-19 Immunization Program of Davao City,” which was approved on third and final reading on February 2, also states that exempted from the program are those declared by a medical professional to have any allergies or found to exhibit adverse reactions to vaccines; those with prevailing medical conditions and advised to refrain from immunization; those covered by contraindication clauses made by vaccine manufacturers and suppliers of the respective vaccines; those who object based on religious and cultural grounds; those exempted as provided for by other laws or statues; those who object based on philosophical grounds; those who choose not to be immunized; and those who have availed of or plan to avail of COVID-19 immunization through other means.
Lopez also said, “Gusto nato ipahibalo sa tanan, this is not the first and the last. The first delivery of the first tranche or first batch of vaccines sa Davao City nga allocation from the national government palang ang unang muabot. Under sa first tranche, naa na syay duha or tulo ka deliveries pa nga himuon.”
He, however, explained that the allocated vaccines from the national government are limited as they also have to cater to other cities and provinces in the entire country.
The city government of Davao, according to him, will start a local augmentation of the COVID-19 immunization program sometime in the second or third quarter.
Mayor Duterte earlier announced that the AstraZeneca vaccines, which the city ordered, may arrive by the third quarter of this year.
(City Information Office | Michael Manguhig, RPN DXKT Davao OIC)
