Belmonte welcomes vaccination rollout

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has welcomed the rollout of the national government vaccination program in some hospitals in Metro Manila.

Belmonte personally attended the kick-off of the vaccination program at the Lung Center of the Philippines, Veterans Memorial Medical Center and V. Luna Hospital on Monday.

A fourth hospital in Quezon City, the Philippine National Police General Hospital, also started vaccinating personnel this week with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech of China.

“I’m extremely happy because we simultaneously rolled out the vaccine in four hospitals in Quezon City and I’m very grateful that you chose Quezon City to be among the first to receive the vaccine,” Belmonte told members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

She expressed hope that medical frontliners will grab the opportunity to be vaccinated immediately, citing experts and studies showing that Sinovac is 100 percent effective in protecting people against hospitalization, severe COVID and death.

“Today, our healthcare workers can begin to finally feel safe against the dreaded virus. They can stop living in fear. Soon our economy will be up on its feet again and our people will have jobs to care for their families,” added the mayor.

Belmonte also reiterated her willingness to be vaccinated with Sinovac if it would help boost confidence in the vaccine but stressed that health workers should be inoculated first.

The city has yet to release the schedule for the rollout of the vaccination in city-operated hospitals.