BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Some 306 medical frontliners and hospital staff workers in Bacolod City have been inoculated with AstraZeneca and Sinovac Coronavirus 2019 vaccines since Monday, Dr. Chris Sorongon, deputy for data and medical analysis of the Emergency Operations Center said.
Sorongon said 43 staff members of the Emergency Operations Center were vaccinated with China-made Sinovac while 10 received AstraZeneca.
At the Doctor Pablo O Torre Memorial Hospital, 160 staff members received AstraZeneca jabs, but 10 had their inoculation deferred after they did not pass the initial screening, he said.
More or less 93 staff members of the South Bacolod General Hospital were also inoculated with the Sinovac vaccines, Sorongon also said.
A report recently showed that in some parts of Europe AstraZeneca vaccines were recalled after those who were vaccinated experienced adverse effects following immunization.
But in Bacolod, none of those who were vaccinated experienced any adverse effects so far, and only those who received Sinovac had localized side effects such as pain in the area of the injection, nausea, and rashes that were treated and eventually disappeared after 15 minutes, Sorongon said.
He added that only about 10 to 15 vacinees experienced adverse effects and that is only about 0.05 percent of the total number of those inoculated.
Sorongon stressed that no less than the World Health Organization stated that the vaccines, especially Sinovac, would work regardless of the Covid variant
Meanwhile, the EOC will check this week if the acceptance rate among the residents towards the vaccines has increased.
Em Ang, Executive Director of EOC had said that the acceptance rate of residents is now at 40 percent from less than 20 percent a few weeks ago.*