Three more hospitals in Iloilo City yesterday kicked off their respective COVID-19 vaccination activity.

Over 1,000 healthcare workers from the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC), West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC) and Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital (IDH) were already inoculated with China-made Sinovac vaccine yesterday.

In WVMC, its chief training officer, Dr. Guadalupe Matejka, was the first medical practitioner to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, in WVSU-MC, its OIC medical center chief, Dr. Dave Endel Gelito III, and WVSU President Joselito Villaruz were the first two to get Sinovac shots.

And in IDH, the first to be vaccinated were hospital president and medical director, Dr. Alejandro Emmanuel Rivera; nursing director Helen Caton; and administrator Joe Marie Muyco.

Last Friday, March 5, health personnel of St. Paul’s Hospital Inc. were the very first ones in Panay Island to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Gelito described the vaccination rollout among their health personnel as a historic day which gave them hope to slowly go back to normal lives.

He then narrated how the university medical center prepared last year to provide medical care to COVID-19 patients and how they reprogrammed their financial resources to prioritize the construction of their molecular laboratory which cost almost half of the hospital’s unexpended budget for 2020.

“Today we are gifted with something more than a mask, PPE, or a PAPR. Today we are given a chance to protect ourselves against the virus, giving us a chance to regain our freedom from the shackles of COVID-19,” said Gelito.

He also appealed to more of his fellow health workers to avail of the vaccine.

“With the recent surges in Metro Manila and Cebu, I believe the earlier we get protection the better for all of us. Let us continue protecting each other as we always have. Please get yourselves vaccinated the soonest,” Gelito added./WDJ