Davao City – Davao City will start its vaccination against the coronavirus on Friday, March 5, 2021, following the arrival of around 12,000 vials of Covid-19 Vaccine CoronaVac or SINOVAC from Manila on Tuesday.
The first batch of SINOVAC vaccines arrived at 6:50 AM at the Davao International Airport from Manila via a commercial flight. It was immediately transported to the storage facility of the Department of Health (DOH) XI.
The medical frontliners will get the first anti-Covid jabs on Friday at Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), which is also the primary Covid-19 hospital facility in the city.
The Chief of the SPMC, Dr. Ricardo Audan said that around 150 to 200 doctors, nurses, and aides are to be vaccinated on the day of the vaccination rollout. They are among the 5,900 SPMC personnel targeted for vaccination for two (2) weeks and administer the second dose to the same recipients after 28 days.
Audan has volunteered to be vaccinated first to serve as a role model and show to the public that the vaccine is safe.
“I think the best way to convince them [people], to promote this vaccine is you should be vaccinated. As the leader of SPMC, I think it’s right that I will be the one to be vaccinated first,” the SPMC chief said.
Dr. Ashley Lopez, Focal Person of the Davao City Covid-19 Task Force, said that the frontliners of tertiary private hospitals will be next in line for the allocation of the first batch of SINOVAC doses.
“Didto na padulong sa private hospitals. Kung naa pay mga sobra pa gyud, kung ma cover na nato ang mga private hospitals then atoang ihatag sa mga TTMFs (The private hospitals are next. After we cover the private hospitals and if there are remaining vaccines then we give it to our TTMFs),” he said.
Based on the February 8 master list of the Davao City Health Office, some 16,677 medical frontline workers are eligible to be vaccinated.
Lopez also said that Davao City will follow the prioritization of vaccination according to standards set by the DOH and the World Health Organization. Based on DOH prioritization from the World Health Organization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (WHO SAGE), there are two (2) groups of eligible groups for the vaccination—the Priority Eligible Group A and B. Priority Eligible Group A includes frontline health workers, indigent senior citizens, remaining senior citizens, remaining indigent population and uniformed personnel (AFP, PNP, PCG, BFP, CAFGU). Group B includes teachers, social workers, other government workers, other essential workers outside health, education, social welfare sectors, socio-demographic groups at significantly higher risk other than SCs and IPs, overseas Filipino workers, and other remaining workforce.
In a previous report, it was revealed that to achieve herd immunity, 1.2 million of the 1.8 million population of Davao City are needed to be vaccinated.
(City Information Office | Michael Manguhig, RPN DXKT Davao OIC)