The first day of the vaccination rollout in Antipolo City went on smoothly with most of the recipients showing no major adverse effects of the Sinovac vaccines on their wellbeing.
Antipolo Hospital System (AHS) Annex IV chief nurse, Weng Torrecampo, told Manila Bulletin that as of 3:30 p.m. (March 4), no person has been brought to the emergency room due to any major adverse effect of the vaccine on their body.
She said out of the 66 medical frontliners who were inoculated, composed mainly of 20 doctors and other medical health workers of the AHS Annex IV, only a few were monitored to have registered high blood pressure.
“They were immediately released from the monitoring area, the fifth and the last step of the vaccination process after some 30 minutes of allowing them to rest and not showing any other signs of major side effects of the vaccine,” Torrecampo said.
Former Mayor and city government’s spokesperson, Dr. Casimiro "Junjun" Ynares III, expressed the city government’s gratitude to President Duterte, the Department of Health, and the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) for bringing the national government’s vaccination program against COVID-19 in the city, making the vaccination rollout historic for the people of the city and the entire country.
Antipolo City is the first locality outside Metro Manila to have received and inoculated the China-made vaccine to the medical frontliners following its arrival a few days ago.
Torrecampo said the 300 vaccines allocated for the city will be administered to the medical frontliners from March 4 to 6 at the AHS Annex IV.
A radiologic technologist was asked to lay on the bed and rest after he complained of mild dizziness a few moments after receiving the vaccine. A doctor immediately attended to him as soon as he arrived at the monitoring area.
Other medical personnel who were interviewed by Manila Bulletin said they did not feel anything bad while being inoculated.
Dr. Ynares III, who is celebrating his birthday coinciding with the start of the vaccination rollout in Antipolo City, said the local government hopes that the other vaccine brands would arrive soon so that more residents would be protected against the COVID-19.