4.5 thousand city frontliners get jab

CEBU, Philippines — Around 4,500 healthcare workers (HCWs) in Cebu City have been inoculated against COVID-19, data of the Cebu City Health Department (CCHD) showed.

The number represents 70 percent of the target, which is over 6,000 HCWs. The target excludes those frontliners in hospitals.

There are at least 16,000 healthcare workers in the city, including those in hospitals, and 1,000 of them are barangay health workers.

CCHD head Dr. Jeffrey Ibones said 4,435 HCWs got vaccinated from March 24, 2021 to April 8, 2021.

“Nindot paminawn nga atong mga healthh care worker nagparegister na sila and nagpabakuna,” he said.

Based on CCHD data, 710 HCWs received COVID vaccines yesterday at two vaccination sites—Robinsons Galleria Cebu (454) and UC-Banilad Campus (256).

Ibones said only one of the 710 workers experienced a serious/major adverse effect, while 32 suffered mild cases after getting vaccinated with either Sinovac or AstraZeneca.

For those vaccinated with Astrazeneca, CHD noted among the adverse effects were high blood pressure, fever and pain on the injection site.

For Sinovac, headache and pain on the injection site.

The same data also showed that a total of 21 HCWs refused to be vaccinated, while vaccination of 325 workers were deferred as they have pre-existing health conditions on the day of the vaccination.

The resumption of the national vaccination program for HCWs at Robinsons Galleria even saw non-practicing healthcare professionals wanting to get vaccinated.

But Ibones said they were turned down due to the government’s priority listing of vaccine recipients.

“Naay nabalibaran—those with expired licenses. They were no longer practicing their profession so dili na sila matawag na healthcare workers,” he said.

The Department of Health in Central Visayas gave out an additional 2,700 doses of Sinovac to CCHD. The vaccines are intended for HCWs aged 18 to 60.

In Consolacion town, Cebu, over a hundred HCWs—nurses, doctors, barangay health workers, dentists, members of the barangay health response teams, medical technologists and pharmacists— have been inoculated with Sinovac and AstaraZeneca so far.

The town targets to inoculate 600 to 800 HCWs from public and private medical facilities.

The vaccination rollout in Consolacion started on March 31.

In a post on the town’s official Facebook page, Consolacion Mayor Joannes Alegado said mass vaccination is the key to beating the pandemic.

 “We know that the answer or key to this pandemic is vaccination. We are running out of time so ang ato diha nga mapaspasan gyud ang pagbakuna sa atong mga katawhan,” he said.

He urged health workers to consider being inoculated.

 “I tell you as a physician myself, vaccines are evidence-based medicine nga makatabang sa problema sa pandemia."

"Ang ako lang nga dili ta mahadlok, dili ta magduha-duha, hinoon dili man sab ni pinugsanay ang pagbakuna, but kinahanglanon gyud nato ang immunity ba, wherein ang virus wala nay tsansa nga makatakud sa uban,”he said. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon with Decemay Padilla, KQD (FREEMAN)