DAVAO CITY – The City Government of Davao hopes to complete the vaccination of 16,700 frontline health workers in public and private hospitals in two weeks, City Health Office (CHO) acting head Dr. Ashley Lopez.
Lopez said in his program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) Wednesday that more frontline health workers are becoming more open to receive the vaccines against COVID-19.
He said around 2,000 out of 5,900 workers of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) have already taken the COVID-19 jab since the vaccination rollout started last March 5 and 599 private health workers at the second vaccination site in A. Mabini Elementary School in Barangay Talomo as of Tuesday.
The vaccination site in A. Mabini Elementary School opened last Monday with six vaccination teams. Each team can accommodate 100 health workers a day, according to Lopez.
Lopez said that the city is set to open Friday its third vaccination site at the Magallanes Elementary School for public health care workers, comprising COVID-19 molecular laboratory personnel, health staff at the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities, community health care workers, and doctors, nurses, and midwives of the city government.
He said only three health workers manifested minor adverse effects such as dizziness and allergies shortly after receiving Sinovac vaccines.
Out of the 33,600 doses of Sinovac that were given to the Davao region from the national government, the city has been allocated 20,000 doses intended for 10,000 individuals, according to Lopez.
He said there are 16,800 frontline health workers who need to get vaccinated in the city.
Lopez added that 20,000 doses of the vaccines, developed by British firm AstraZeneca in collaboration with Oxford University, arrived in the city Wednesday.
He added that AstraZeneca vaccines will be reserved until all Sinovac vaccines will have been used.
Mayor Sara Duterte wanted to expedite the vaccination of the frontline health workers here against the COVID-19 amid potential surge due to the emergence of highly infectious South African and UK variants in the National Capital Region and Cebu.
The local chief executive said she hopes that more healthcare workers in the hospitals, including medical laboratories and other allied institutions, will be inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines to lessen the risk of contracting the virus or develop serious complications.
“We need to fast-track the vaccination of our health care workers. Although there is a possibility that they would still contract the virus, at least it will be just be mild. We need to make sure that they will get vaccinated when they come face-to-face with the virus, so that they will have some sort of protection,” she said.