DAVAO CITY – Department of Health (DOH)-Davao Director Annabelle Yumang said the agency has identified 18,656 health care workers in the hospitals across the region who need to get inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines.
The vaccination program in Davao City started last Friday, with Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) officer-in-charge Dr. Ricardo Audan as the first recipient of the vaccines developed by China’s Sinovac.
Yumang said that the list does not include other frontline health workers employed in other medical healthcare institutions, barangays, and temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs).
She said the vaccines will be deployed from the agency’s regional health office Sunday to different local government units in preparation for the start of vaccine rollout in other parts of the region Monday.
Davao City has a total of 33,600 vaccines of Sinovac out of the 600,000 doses which arrived in the country last Sunday. Aside from Sinovac, a total of 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the country on March 4 through the COVAX facility.
In a survey conducted by the SPMC on 1,700 workers, Audan said that at least 85 percent approved of Sinovac. The SPMC has around 5,900 workers, according to him.
Audan urged the medical frontliners to set aside their hesitations on receiving vaccines to get themselves protected from the infection.