There were some health workers in Western Visayas who backed out from receiving COVID-19 vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, according to the Department of Health (DOH-6).
DOH-6 spokesperson Dr. Mary Jane Juanico, in an interview over radio station Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo, said their latest survey showed that from 50 to 70 percent, only 20 to 30 percent of the health workers in the region expressed willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
A total of 16,880 doses of China-donated vaccines arrived in the region on Friday last week, March 5.
The vaccines are intended for more than 8,000 health workers of the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC), West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC), Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital (IDH), and St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo (SPHI) in Iloilo City, and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) and Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod City.
Juanico said 29 health workers in the two cities received their first dose of the China-made vaccine called CoronaVac on Friday, the first day of the vaccination rollout in the region.
Based on the March 7 bulletin released by DOH-6, Western Visayas has 1,276 active COVID-19 cases, which refer to patients still infected with SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of the disease.
Iloilo province accounted for the most number of active cases recorded in the region at 511, followed by Iloilo City (277), Aklan (177), Negros Occidental (162), Bacolod City (70), Guimaras (45), Capiz (32), and Antique (2).IMT
