Covid-19 Vaccination in the Philippines

Upon writing this blog I am a little sleepy but the night is young and my kids are still awake. It 8:37 in the evening now, first time after ages that I felt sleepy at this hour.

The reason why I feel tired today is because I had my first dose of vaccine against Covid-19.. I was mentioning before that the vaccination here is a little slow, I think it depends on the local government on how they are implementing the vaccination program in their places.

Since I am not really going out, I really don’t have access on the news outside our house.. I should be relying on the social media post of our local government. So, I saw there the link on how to register for vaccination. I was not hesitant at all to be vaccinated because Covid-19 is a real danger, no one should question that, nothing can beat that but the vaccination.

So, I learnt that I am eligible to be vaccinated because my category falls on A3. This is for people with comorbidities. These are the people who have existing medical conditions. I have hypertension and I am already taking daily medication to maintain my blood pressure.

This is the procedure that I took for my vaccination..

1. I register through the online registration that was posted on the facebook page of our local government.
2. After a week, I received a message that my schedule was today at 9:30 in the morning. I need to present a medical certificate or the prescription that I have from the doctor.
3. This morning I was accompanied by my father because it is said that the vaccine has some effects in the body. This is just to be sure.. I arrived there in the center at around 8:30am. It’s good that I was early because though my schedule is 9:30 they still accommodate the early birds.
4. There are some forms that were given to us and some of those we filled up. Then, we proceeded to the verification booth.
5. After that we went to a room for information. The nurse discussed to us the possible reactions of the vaccine in our body. What needs to expect in the next two weeks. When are we going to have the “immunity” or when it will be effective.
6. After that, our blood pressure was checked. I was okay.
7. Then proceeded to a doctor for screening.
8. Went to a booth for the health card that they will fill up when we are already vaccinated.
9. Then the vaccination. Oh my, this is the first time I got scared of vaccines. The nurses are really caring but they can see how uncomfortable I was. Haha..

10. After we were monitored for 30 minutes.. Our blood pressures were checked and then we were done.

I will be back for my second dose on September.

Here are the categories for the prioritization of vaccines here in the Philippines.

A1 – Health Care Workers

A2 – Seniors

A3 – People with Commorbidities

A4 – Government and economic frontliners

A5 – Indigent Population

So, ongoing now is the A3 category.. It was announced by the government that A4 category vaccination is already implemented. A4 is the government employees and economic frontliners.

Economic frontliners are said to be the people from public or private sectors that require to be physically present in their workplaces.

Sources of these information is from DOH website and Rappler.

Next will be the B categories but the government is still to release when they will be vaccinated.

Kudos to our local government who implemented the vaccination program very systematically.