No matter how far or how small Batanes is, this country’s northernmost province is assured of getting enough COVID-19 vaccines.
The province has started its vaccination program for its medical frontliners Tuesday, March 9, after the arrival of their first Sinovac shipments.
Dr. Jeffrey Antony T. Canceran of the Batanes General Hospital was the first health practitioner in the province to receive the Sinovac jab during the ceremonial vaccination witnessed by Batanes Governor Marilou H. Cayco.
“Part siya ng national program ng Department (of Health) and ng IATF. Kagandahan nun, kahit na nasa malayong lugar tayo, sumabay tayo dun sa mga frontline that will be vaccinated first. (It is part of the national program of the Department of Health and of the IATF. Despite of our location, we were included in the frontline that will be vaccinated first),” Dr. Canceran said.
“Akala ko nga, tayo yung huling mabibigyan ng bakuna, but with the program of the National Task Force, hindi tayo nawawala dun sa serbisyong ibinibigay nila, (We thought we will be the last province to receive the vaccines, but with the program of the National Task Force, we are always provided with the services they rendered),” he added.
Dr. Canceran disclosed that during the initial listing of those who are willing to received Sinovac, only 30% of the total number of the employees of the hospital were willing to be inoculated because of baseless speculations spreading online.
“Nung unang araw ng paglilista ng mga magbabakuna na Sinovac ang ibibigay, mababa yung response ng mga empleyado natin sa ospital. Lalo na ngayon na maraming luamalabas sa social media ngayon na mahirap sabihin kung totoo ba o hindi, (On our first day of enlisting our willing employees to receive Sinovac, we have a low response from them most especially because of the speculations spread through social media that was hard to verify its validity,” Dr. Canceran exclaimed.
The BGH chief is urging the public to be more informed about the vaccines before choosing their preferred vaccine.
“Ang kailangan natin ay to disseminate more information in the community para mas aware sila. Dahil bagong virus ito, kailangan nating i-implement yung sinasabi nating mass vaccination para ma-achieve natin yung new normal, (What we need is to disseminate more information in the community for them to be more aware about the vaccine. We need to implement the mass vaccination for us to achieve the new normal status),” he said persistently.
The vaccines in Batanes are expected to cater the medical frontliners of Batanes General Hospital in Batan island and Itbayat District Hospital in Itbayat island.