Over 5K military medical front-liners vaccinated so far

MANILA – At least 5,293 medical front-liners of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been inoculated so far with the Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccines as many have responded to the call, AFP public affairs office chief Navy Capt. Jonathan Zata said on Monday.

Zata said the vaccinees came mostly from military treatment facilities (MTFs) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and the 4th Infantry Division in Cagayan De Oro.

“Mainly from the MTFs of the NCR and 4th Infantry Division. Other MTFs (from the Unified Command) will be starting today (Monday),” he said.

Vaccination of military health front-liners started on March 1, a day after the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by China arrived in the country.

The exact number of vaccinees per MTF is still being collated as of this time, Zata said.

MTFs located in Metro Manila include the Victoriano Luna Medical Center and the Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo Station Hospital, both in Quezon City; Manila Naval Hospital and the Philippine Army General Hospital, both in Taguig and the Philippine Air Force General Hospital in Pasay City.

On Sunday, Philippine Air Force (PAF) spokesperson Lt. Col. Maynard P. Mariano said the air force is committed to transporting the Covid-19 vaccines in different parts of the country.

“Rest assured, the PAF will be relentless in transporting vaccines as the government’s workhorse and is one with the nation in the fight against Covid-19,” he said.

The PAF delivered 5,260 vials of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to Puerto Princesa City, Palawan on March 5 via a C-295 medium transport aircraft.

“Upon its arrival at Antonio Bautista Air Base, the vaccines were turned-over by Presidential Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to Palawan Governor Jose Chaves Alvarez and subsequently to DOH (Department of Health) Palawan Representative Dr. Peter Cumareng,” Mariano said.

He said the vaccines will be administered to the medical health front-liners of various hospitals in Palawan.

Police health front-liners

Meanwhile, all police health front-liners in Metro Manila have been vaccinated with CoronaVac vaccines, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Debold Sinas said Monday.

In a media interview, Sinas said the PNP received 1,400 for its police health workers in NCR.

He said the medical front-liners are from the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon, and the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig.

He said they are still waiting for the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Diseases’ (IATF-EID) guidance if the PNP will also be given allocation from the 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that arrived in two batches through the COVAX Facility on March 4 and 7.

“Wala pa sila guidance as to the AstraZeneca. We are waiting, baka within this week baka mabigyan na po kami. Again ang instructions naman na nilabas ng IATF unahin po yung mga priority then kasama po kami doon (There is still no guidance as to the AstraZeneca. We are waiting, hopefully this week we will be given. Again the instructions of the IATF is to vaccine first those in the priority list including us),” he added.

Sinas said other Police Regional Offices like Davao and Calabarzon have also started the vaccination rollout for their health workers.

“Hopefully we could reach 80 to 90 percent and marami naman pong mga tao namin ang nagrerespond and we are waiting from the government kung sino po ang bibigyan. (many of our men are responding and we are waiting from the government if who will be vaccinated next),” Sinas said. (With reports from Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)