The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City on Monday, March 8, conducted the ceremonial rollout of the first 10 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The first person in RITM to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine was Director Celia Carlos.
“As the leader of this agency, I need to show a good example. It is my hope that I may influence our employees who are still doubtful about getting vaccinated. There have been many studies on the value of these vaccines and on how they prevent severe disease and deaths,” Carlos said in her opening remarks.
In a statement, the RITM said the Institute was allocated 100 vials of the AstraZeneca vaccines enough to inoculate 1,000 of their personnel.
It added that the Institute-wide immunization program will start on Tuesday, March 9 and will run for a week for the first dose of the vaccine.
The second dose will proceed after four to 12 weeks.
Aside from the RITM, the Department of Health (DOH) said a hospital in Bataan and Pampanga also conducted their rollout.
"Our healthcare workers will be given the option what they want, Sinovac or AstraZeneca," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual forum.
"The only reminder and instruction we gave to our health facilities they should not vaccinate different types of vaccine in a given day," she added.
"Example, if they scheduled the Sinovac today, they should schedule the AstraZeneca the next day so that operationally we won't have a problem in administering the vaccines," Vergeire said.