More than 1,000 policemen have already been vaccinated by China-made Sinovac as the Philippine National Police (PNP) continues to inoculate its medical frontliners against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, deputy chief for Administration and concurrent commander of the PNP Administrative Support for COVID-19 Task Force (ASCOTF), said a total of 1,094 police medical frontliners were already vaccinated since the national government rolled out its free vaccination.
He said they expect more police medical frontliners to get the vaccine, especially that the Department of Health (DOH) has increased its allocation for the PNP--from 800 to 1,200.
Citing PNP data, Eleazar said that a total of 125 police medical frontliners were vaccinated on March1, 180 on March 2, 253 on March 3, 327 on March 4 and 209 on March 5.
Of the 1,094 vaccinated so far, only three of them experienced minor side effects like rashes, headache and dizziness.
Being at the frontline on the COVID-19 response, PNP personnel have been on the frontline since the lockdown began on March 15. But those who were prioritized in the vaccination are those assigned to take care of infected policemen and those in the molecular laboratories.
Based on the latest PNP data, a total of 11,613 PNP personnel were already infected by the coronavirus, 31 of them died.