Sotto gets Sinovac shot vs. COVID-19

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Saturday received his first dose of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine.

“After A1, A2, and A3 Senate Employees, finally had mine although I’m A2. I took what was available upon arrival. Had Sinovac!” Sotto said in a Viber message to reporters.

Sotto was accompanied by his wife, actress Helen Gamboa, during the inoculation.

Last Tuesday, Sotto disclosed that 73% of Senate employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

He said that senators have agreed to be the last ones to get the COVID-19 vaccines allotted for the Senate.

As of April, the Senate has 1,848 employees.

Apart from the China-made Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines, the Russia-made Sputnik V doses were also used for the inoculation of the Senate employees.

In November 2020, Sotto disclosed that Senator Panfilo Lacson had already been inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine.

As of May 18, the Philippine government has administered 3.2 million COVID-19 doses.

The government has also distributed 7,671,120 out of 7,779,050 COIVD-19 vaccine doses across the country, this equates to 99% distribution rate.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said the government will start inoculating persons belonging to the A4 and A5 priority groups once the COVID-19 vaccine supply in the country becomes steady.

The complete list of Priority Group A4 is as follows:

• commuter transport (land, air, and sea), including logistics
• public and private wet and dry market vendors
• frontline workers in groceries, supermarkets, delivery services
• workers in manufacturing for food, beverage, medical and pharmaceutical products
• frontline workers in food retail, including food service delivery
• frontline workers in private and government financial services
• frontline workers in hotels and accommodation establishments
• priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders
• security guards/ personnel assigned in offices, agencies, and organizations identified in the list of priority industries/sectors
• frontline workers in private and government news media
• customer-facing personnel of telecoms, cable and internet service providers, electricity distribution and water distribution utilities
• frontline personnel in basic education and higher education institutions and agencies
• overseas Filipino workers, including those scheduled for deployment within two months
• frontline workers in law/justice, security, and social protection sectors
• frontline government workers engaged in the operations of government transport system, quarantine inspection; worker safety inspection and other COVID-19 response activities
• frontline government workers in charge of tax collection, assessment of businesses for incentives, election, national ID, data collection personnel
• diplomatic community and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) personnel in consular operations
• Department of Public Works and Highways personnel in charge of monitoring government infrastructure projects

-MDM, GMA News