Shunning VIP (very important person) treatment, Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday, May 19, received the first dose of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine together with 18 staff from the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
In a Facebook post, Robredo said that all of them are under the A3 category or people with co-morbidities. Robredo has hypertension.
They were vaccinated at the Pinyahan Elementary School in Quezon City.
“Done with my 1st dose of the vaccine. Now being monitored. Everything has been seamless. We booked at QC Protektado site via EZ Consult last May 13 for an appointment today,” she said.
The vice president shared that some of those who came with her today were staff that had second thoughts to get vaccinated before.
Robredo even went on to say that one of their office drivers, Julius, offered to retire instead of getting vaccinated. She posted a photo of them together with Julius showing his arms where the vaccine was injected.
“Mahabang kumbinsihan. In fact, sinasabi niya kanina, magreretire nalang siya (smiley face). Ngayon tapos na kami. Happy na siya. Sabi niya, first time in his life siya na inject (It’s a long process to convince him. In fact, he’s saying that he will just retire. Now, we are done. He’s happy. He said that this is the first time in his life that he has been injected),” she said.
The lady official called on Filipinos to get vaccinated against COVID-19, too.
“Magbakuna na din kayo para protektado kayo at ang lahat ng nakakasalamuha niyo. Tingnan niyo yung group pic namin. Maraming takot sa umpisa pero may konting yabang na nung nagpakuha ng litrato (Get vaccinated already so you can get protected, too, and we can start all over. Look at our group picture. A lot were apprehensive at first but now, there’s a little bit of pride when we took the picture),” she added.
Her post showed a socially distant photo wherein Robredo was situated in the middle with her staff surrounding her.
Robredo took time to get vaccinated because there was only a meager supply of COVID-19 doses when the vaccination of the A3 category began. She said she’ll reconsider getting inoculated since there are already over seven million doses available in the country.
The vice president thanked the team at the Pinyahan Elementary School in Quezon City, especially mentioning her vaccinator’s name, nurse Raffy Viado.
She had high praises for the vaccine rollout in Quezon City, describing the process as “super organized.”