University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital director Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi became the first person in the country to receive an authorized dose of CoronaVac, the Chinese vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech. According to The Philippine STAR, the shot was administered during a recently concluded symbolic vaccination activity.
In a message sent to PeopleAsia editor-in-chief Joanne Rae Ramirez, the “People of the Year” awardee said that he felt “fine” and immediately went back to work after the inoculation. He also added that the flu shot he received last November was “more painful.”
Aside from Legaspi, medical workers and government officials at the helm of the country’s pandemic response were also inoculated. Among the notable personalities who reportedly received their respective doses of CoronaVac were Food and Drug Administration director Gen. Eric Domingo, testing czar Vince Dizon and Metro Manila Development Authority chair Benjamin Abalos Jr.
CoronaVac will also reportedly be administered to frontliners at the Lung Center of the Philippines, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center and Sanitarium, Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Philippine National Police General Hospital and Victoriano Luna Medical Center.
Now on his way to his fifth year as UP-PGH director, Legaspi is in charge of making sure that the country’s heavily burdened medical facility, not only provides effective treatments, but also takes care of both rich and poor.
To date, PGH is the biggest hospital in the country with a 1,500-bed capacity for its nearly 700,000 patients. It’s also one of the few Philippine hospitals to have survived the test of time, and has remained operational even during and immediately after World War II.
“This year (2020), PGH is all about the pandemic since it was designated as a COVID referral center by the Department of Health,” Legaspi shared in PeopleAsia’s December 2020-January 2021 issue.
With the government and private donors’ help, the PGH spent the last year equipping itself with the latest ventilators, monitoring equipment and medications for its COVID-19 wards. “Top architects like Manny Miñana and Dan Lichauco helped us with the ventilation designs, which allow us to have an efficient air exchange ventilation system in the wards,” Legaspi shared.
Since PGH became a COVID referral center in March 2020, the institution has seen an 85-percent recovery rate out of the 3,000 cases it handled, as of November last year. The hands-on chief also shared four practical things to further avoid the pandemic’s transmission. “First is to fight the fear, second is to believe in science, third is to never let your guard down, and lastly, to take care of each other,” he said.
The sense of “bayanihan, [the spirit of communal unity]” according to Legaspi, also served as a silver lining at the height of the pandemic. “Communities are talking, exchanging services and opinions on how we can all rise together,” he added. — by Jose Paolo S. dela Cruz
