BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Some 648 health workers and hospital staff members in Bacolod City have been inoculated with the Sinovac Coronavirus 2019 vaccines since Tuesday, according to Dr. Chris Sorongon, the Emergency Operations Center Deputy for medical and data analysis, said.
Sorongon also said 164 staff members including medical and non-medical workers of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital have already been inoculated, and 361 at the Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital/ Riverside Medical Center, Inc.
He said 26 staff members of the Bacolod Doctors Hospital and 62 from the South Bacolod General Hospital have also been vaccinated.
Sorongon added that, as of this writing they have no data yet as to how many staff members from the Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital and Metro Bacolod Hospital have been inoculated since their vaccination only started yesterday.
Meanwhile, the inoculation of 21 staff members of CLMMRH and DPOTMH were deferred for various reasons like shooting up of high blood pressure, among others.
Aside from the staff members of the hospitals, 34 members of the EOC have also been vaccinated since Tuesday.
EOC Executive Director EmAng said there was an increase in the number of health workers who want to be vaccinated since the start of the inoculation last week and, in fact, the management of other hospitals requested for additional doses of the vaccines.
Ang said that the vaccine acceptance rate among residents increased too, and they have receive of partial reports coming from the barangays that there are a lot of people who are already willing to be vaccinated.
She estimated the vaccine acceptance rate in Bacolod now to be between 38 to 40 percent from less than 20 percent a week ago.
Ang attributed the increase of the vaccine acceptance rate to the rigorous education campaign conducted by the EOC through social and the mainstream media, adding that, hopefully, more residents will be persuaded to have themselves vaccinated.
Bacolod City received 6,270 Sinovac vaccines from the national government for its health workers last week.*
