Published March 9, 2021, 11:06 AM
Several hospitals in Metro Manila said they are “ready” for an increase in admissions of COVID-19 cases.
St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Benjamin Campomanes said the hospital has “anticipated” the increase of patients already.
(UNSPLASH / MANILA BULLETIN)
“What we’re doing now is we have looked ahead because the agreement with DOH (Department of Health) is we start off with 20 [percent] and then we are ready for 30 [percent],” Campomanes told CNN in an interview Tuesday, March 9.
SLMC allocated 102 COVID beds in its Bonifacio Global City (BGC) branch and 109 in its Quezon City branch.
Mayor Isko Moreno
First, the good news. Manila led the way in the formal vaccination roll out of the first batch of the anti-COVID-19 vaccines that arrived in the country. It was held at the Philippine General Hospital, where PGH Director Gap Legaspi himself became the first recipient of the Coronavac made and donated by China’s Sinovac
Biotech.
Later during the day, Manila was fortunate enough to receive 3,000 Coronavac vaccines from the national government and for this, we profusely thank President Rodrigo Duterte, National Task Force (NTF) Deputy Chief Implementer and Testing Czar Vince Dizon, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr., Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and the DOH family for being highly instrumental in the donation of vaccines given to the city.
Day One of the government's vaccination program has been a resounding success after more people got vaccinated beyond the government's expectation, Malacañang said Tuesday.
na talaga namang tatanggapin ng ating mga healthcare workers
ito dahil kailangan bigyan ng kumpiyansa itong bakuna, she said.
[Translation: We believe when the top physicians of hospitals were vaccinated like Dr. Gap Legaspi, our expert Dr. Edsel Salvaña, Dr. (Fritz) Famaran of Tala Hospital, we think this gave confidence to healthcare workers to accept it because it boosted confidence in the vaccines.]
On Monday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III administered the vaccine himself to Dr. Eileen Aniceto, Lung Center s Emergency Medicine Department head, and V. Luna Medical Center chief Col. Fatima Navarro.
The DOH reported that on day one ot the government s vaccination program, 756 people received the Sinovac vaccine. Thirteen of those inoculated experienced common, minor side effects, Vergeire said.