An estimated 200 employees of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) are expected to receive their first of two doses of Sinovac-made vaccines Wednesday, April 14.
MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos personally oversaw the inoculation of the workers, which began at past 10:30 a.m. It is ongoing as of this posting.
"Sa ngayon ay halos 771 cases ang naging kaso ng COVID dito sa MMDA. Ang active case sa ngayon ay 100, ang namamatay sa amin ay walo na (So far a total of 771 COVID cases have been recorded here at MMDA. We have 100 active cases, while eight have already died)," Abalos told reporters in a chance interview at the MMDA Parking Area in Guadalupe, Makati City, where the inoculations took place.
"Kaya humingi kami ng tulong sa DOH na mabakunahan ang ating mga frontliners lalung-lalo na ang ating mga traffic enforcers, ang mga nasa field (That’s why we sought help from the DOH to have our frontliners on the field, especially our traffic enforcers, get vaccinated)," he said.
The MMDA acquired CoronaVac brand vaccines for the activity. However, Abalos did not mention in the interview how many vials were allocated to them. CoronaVac is manufactured by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
If anything, Abalos assured the public the agency would still follow the priority list that the government has been observing in its mass inoculation program against COVID-19.
"Ang uunahin ay ang mga senior citizens, tapos medical frontliners. So sinusunod namin yung priority list (Senior citizens and medical frontliners will be vaccinated first. So we're following the priority list)," he said.
It was learned that MMDA workers with comorbidities would also receive shots.
"Sana maunawaan dahil talagang kawawa ang mga empleyado ng MMDA at nasa harap sila ng tao araw-araw (Please understand, MMDA employees are truly at risk since they have to face people on a daily basis)," Abalos said.
The MMDA chief said the doctors and nurses who administered Wednesday's vaccinations were inoculated from COVID-19 Tuesday, April 13.