March 15, 2021 — March 1, 2021 was a historic day for the Philippine General Hospital as it became the first hospital and its director, Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, the first Filipino officially vaccinated for the government’s COVID-19 vaccine roll out. The launch happened a day after the Philippines received 600,000 doses of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccine donated by China. 

Along with Dr. Legaspi, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Eric Domingo, infectious disease specialist and DOH Technical Working Group member Dr. Edsel Salvana, MMDA Chief Benhur Abalos, Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr., and UP College of Medicine Clinical Assoc Professor Dr. Dominga Padilla were vaccinated at the PGH. 

They were joined by at least 756 frontline healthcare workers from six other hospitals in Metro Manila where simultaneous roll outs of the said vaccine were done. These were the Lung Center of the Philippines, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center and Sanitarium (Tala), Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Philippine National Police General Hospital, and V. Luna Medical Center.

After being immunized, Dr. Legaspi stressed that the Sinovac vaccine is safe and assured his fellow medical frontliners that the FDA and the Vaccine Expert Panel will not approve a vaccine for use unless it has been proven safe and effective. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Salvana said that it would be best for health workers to receive the vaccine that is available now to have themselves protected against COVID-19. Dr. Padilla likewise encouraged health workers to consider taking the vaccine now to avoid getting infected and go back to their normal way of life sooner.

A total of 124 health workers were vaccinated on this first day of the ceremonial inoculation program that continued in the next two days until all doses were used. 

Meanwhile, the Astra Zeneca vaccine roll out in PGH started on March 8 at 7:30 am shortly after the arrival of the vaccines that day. The AZ roll out will be until March 19, 2021.

The PGH Vaccine Deployment Program has prioritized about 6,000 health personnel and employees, including senior faculty, professors emeriti, and retirees following the guidelines set by the Department of Health and World Health Organization.

It envisions to vaccinate all its prioritized healthcare workers by the end of March.

Before the rollout, PGH conducted simulation not only of the vaccination and monitoring of adverse affects but also of the arrival and storage of the vaccines with their room and cold storage requirements and their preparation. 

The Philippines is the last in ASEAN to rollout its vaccination drive despite having the second highest number of cases and with a surge in cases daily. As of March 15, coronavirus cases in the country was recorded at  5,404 COVID-19 cases – the 4th biggest single-day tally in the country since the pandemic began.

Cynthia M. Villamor

Published in UP Manila Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 25