San Juan to use Sinovac on seniors

MANILA, Philippines — The city government of San Juan will start inoculating senior citizens with vaccines developed by Sinovac Biotech of China.

Mayor Francis Zamora said the vaccination will start at around 9 a.m. today at the San Juan Arena.

“San Juan City will follow the guidelines set by our experts in our rollout. With the inoculation of senior citizens, a stringent set of rules are in place which we will make sure we implement in the city,” he said in a statement.

At least 8,657 individuals over 60 years old have registered for the city’s vaccination drive. Of the number, 1,038 or 11.99 percent have been inoculated with vaccines from British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

San Juan has received another 1,000 doses of Sinovac from the national government, which Zamora said augmented their dwindling supply of the China-made vaccines.

A total of 4,407 health care workers and 2,068 persons with comorbidities have been vaccinated.

“I advise San Juaneños to take whatever vaccine is available. The vaccines are there to protect us and with us protected, we also protect our loved ones,” Zamora said.

At least 51,419 residents registered for vaccination, which is 60.21 percent of the city’s target population of 85,400.

Caloocan mayor: Trust vaccines

Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan yesterday urged residents to avail themselves of the city’s vaccination drive following a report that a person with comorbidity, identified as Fredy Totanis, suffered a stroke after receiving Sinovac vaccine last March 29.

The city government is monitoring the condition of Totanis, who is confined at East Avenue Medical Center, Malapitan added.

Totanis has diabetes and hypertension, his daughter Nicole Totanis said in a viral Facebook post.

In a statement on Saturday, the Department of Health said the vaccine did not cause the Caloocan resident’s stroke.