MUNTINLUPA CITY—The Department of Health-Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (DOH-RITM) rolls out the 300 donated CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccines to its healthcare workers today. RITM is one of the selected Level-3 hospitals catering to COVID-19 patients that were allocated with the Sinovac donation.
 
The doses were apportioned to be administered to 300 employees for two days. A total of 150 RITM health and essential workers were vaccinated today and 120 staff have already signed up for vaccination tomorrow. The remaining 30 slots will be filled out by the end of day.
 
“As healthcare practitioners in the front line of our nation’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, it is our duty to prioritize our health. Being healthy ensures that we are more than able to serve the Filipino people,” maintained Director Celia Carlos.
 
The RITM Director further reiterated that the initial 300 doses do not intend to cover the 1,522 of the Institute’s workforce, and that this activity is independent of the actual RITM Immunization Program. “This initial allotment is a donation that was offered to our employees on a first-come first-served basis, with priority for frontline workers. Everyone who was vaccinated today—and those who will be vaccinated tomorrow—have pre-registered and were found suitable to receive these doses,” clarified Carlos. “The Institute-wide immunization program will be launched once we receive the allocation of vaccines procured by the national government,” she added.
 
All employees, including those who are yet to be vaccinated, have undergone health education orientation and pre-screening since early last month.
 
As for today’s activity, each vaccine recipient is required to stay at the vaccination holding area for 30 minutes to one hour for adverse reaction monitoring.
 
Minor adverse reactions such as dizziness and tenderness in the injection site were reported. There were no reports of serious adverse events post-vaccination as of this writing.