The San Juan Medical Center (SJMC) formally started on Saturday, March 6 its inoculation drive for its health workers after receiving 300 doses of CoronaVac vaccines made by Chinese drug maker Sinovac yesterday.

Ret. Gen. Dr. Joseph Acosta, SJMC’s medical director, was the first medical frontliner to get inoculated with the vaccine at the hospital.
“I got the shot for the hospital, my patients and my family. Getting vaccinated protects not just myself but the people around me and I believe it is my responsibility to show our medical frontliners and the San Juaneños, as Medical Director of our only public hospital in the city, that our vaccines are safe and definitely effective,” Dr. Acosta said.
The San Juan City local government said that 138 health workers have volunteered to be inoculated today, with 83 of them being vaccinated as of this morning and more will be inoculated as soon as their shifts end.
“Although I would have loved to be there to witness this historic occasion, I was still very elated to witness on social media what I have long waited for. The rollout of the vaccination program against COVID-19 in San Juan City, where the first local transmission of the virus was reported, shows that the country is now actively fighting the pandemic,” San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said in a call to the frontliners.
Zamora was unable to personally witness the launch of the rollout of the vaccine in the city because he is currently under quarantine at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center after testing positive for COVID-19 last Monday, March 1.
Representing the mayor at the launch was Vice Mayor Warren Villa who said that the event had historic significance and pointed out that it was another milestone in the city’s fight against COVID-19.
“Exactly a year ago, the first local COVID-19 transmission was detected in San Juan City, a patient from outside Metro Manila was confined in Cardinal Santos Medical Center. It was on March 6, 2020 that the DOH personally went to Mayor Zamora and informed him of the first local transmission in the country which was recorded in San Juan City. Exactly a year later, our City begins vaccinating its medical frontliners,” said Villa.
Zamora also urged his constituents to sign up for the vaccination program of the city against COVID-19.
As of 8 a.m., March 5, the San Juan city has 30,465 registrants which accounts for 35.67% of the target population of 85,400 or 70% of the entire population of the city to achieve herd immunity.