First Visayas, Mindanao medical front-liner vaccinated in Cebu

Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr., chief of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), was the first medical front-liner in the Visayas and Mindanao to receive the China-donated CoronaVac vaccine in Cebu.

Aquino stated that he expected other healthcare workers to follow him in taking the first shot.

After Aquino, DOH 7 chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Inter-Agency Task Force deputy chief implementer Melquiades Feliciano, and two chiefs of public hospitals also received their first dose.

The vaccines administered were part of the 7,200 doses of CoronaVac allocated for VSMMC healthcare workers, which are part of the 600,000 doses donated by China to the Philippines.

VSMMC is targeting around 500 staff to be vaccinated per day in the next few days.

Cebu City is the second city outside Metro Manila to begin vaccinating residents.

The Philippines commenced its COVID-19 vaccination program on March 1, following the arrival of 600,000 Sinovac vaccine doses, and the FDA has granted emergency use authorization for vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac.