Sinovac or Astrozeneca?

[graham59]

I received my free (Astra-Zeneca) jab today in my local town...as I'm a 'senior'.

Used my ACR-1 card (13A Probationary Resident) for  I.D. 

Very efficient procedure, and felt neither the  jab itself, nor after-effects.  Next one ...Aug 25.  

[Mike J]

My report and my concerns.

My shot was Astra and I did not sleep well last night sore shoulder and some chills.  But not really all that bad.  Shots were scheduled to begin at 9:00 am and I showed up at 8:45.  I ended up being number 98 in the queue.  Imagine my surprise when I heard there were only 100 shots to be given out.

Now my concerns:

I assume the crew set up the tables, chairs, etc. starting at 8:00am.  I was there a total of 4 and 1/2 hours so I finished up a bit past 1:30 pm.  There just a few people left for the 30 minute observation.  The crew had not yet begun to gather up supplies, etc.  My point being that even giving out as few as 100 shots took the crew a full day.  How big was the crew?  I did a quick count and came up with 29 people.  It is possible I may have missed one or two as they were moving through the crowd.

I was very impressed with the crew and courtesy and professionalism.  I think they all took their job seriously and always showed the greatest of respect to the many elderly in attendance.  But the raw numbers only showed that a medical crew of 30 people can give 100 shots per day.  How in the world will the Philippines be able to handle the many many provincial areas like we have here in Moalboal. 

My question for other members here.  Is the process any more efficient in the urban areas?  Was the process for you efficient in terms of getting the shots out or did Moalboal follow some national guidelines and this is going to take A VERY LONG TIME.    

[graham59]

My local vaccine centre (covered basketball court) was similarly staffed, but I was in and out of there... including the 30 mins post-jab observation stage, in around an hour. 

9am start, with perhaps a dozen people waiting for their jab.  This has been running for a few days already though. 

[Snowy79]

4 hours ago, Mike J said:

 

My question for other members here.  Is the process any more efficient in the urban areas?  Was the process for you efficient in terms of getting the shots out or did Moalboal follow some national guidelines and this is going to take A VERY LONG TIME.    

I've not been vaccinated but my friend was on Boracay was and he said it was a slick process, almost like a conveyor belt. They did have a practice day using the LGU and PNP the day before though to iron out the process 

[OnMyWay]

5 hours ago, Mike J said:

My question for other members here.  Is the process any more efficient in the urban areas?  Was the process for you efficient in terms of getting the shots out or did Moalboal follow some national guidelines and this is going to take A VERY LONG TIME.    

I think many have concerns on how long it is going to take.  As usual, Philippines has to add too much bureaucracy in.

In our case, SBMA announced on May 14th that they had obtained 1150 doses of AZ or Sino for A1-A3 groups.  They said they expected to give 70-100 doses a day, which I thought was very low.  They also said:

“We have six volunteer doctors giving the shots, and 15 nurses and 10 administrative staff from the SBMA Public Health and Safety Department who undertake registration, counselling and processing, so we’re up to it and I believe we can finish with this batch and take on the next ones,” Yambao added.

When I went on May 31, if you include all the people inside and out, I think the staffing was higher.  There were 6 sections you had to go through:  1.  Get a number at the door and wait in the bleachers.  2.  Stop 1 is to make sure you are pre-registered.  3.  Stop 2 is actual registration.  4.  Stop 3 is pre-screening, BP and Oxy and interview.  5.  Stop 4 is the jab.  6.  Stop 5 Observation and BP/Oxy again.

The stops were well organized because there was a helper at most sections to keep it organized and moving.  That is extra important with seniors.  However, the last stop, observation, did not have a helper and it showed.  The post-jab staff was 2-3 nurses and they had too much on their plate to keep it organized.  Still not bad.

One thing is did notice, is that both staff and patients were extremely polite and courteous to everyone.  Nice to see that.

One thing I noted about the overall SBMA program.  They started giving jabs on May 18th and 19th.  Then May 21.  Then a long break until May 31 and another break until tomorrow, June 4th.  I guess they don't have all the jabs ready to go at once.  If they did, it seems they would want to get them out ASAP.

They did 120 doses the first day and hoped to get up to 250 doses a day after that.  When I got mine, I was #45 and they were over 100 when I left after 2 hours, so it seems they could hit the 250 mark.

[JDDavao II]

Here in my part of Davao City, the site was an elementary school with the waiting area being a covered basketball court and the seating rows of well-separated plastic chairs. My MIL and I were in row 7 with 14 in each row. There were empty rows behind me and the seating area was only ever about half-filled.

We were not apprised that a BP check was needed beforehand until we had waited for more than 30 minutes in the seating area although there was staff there for that purpose. Once the BP check was done, we each received our BP on a small slip of paper which needed to be shown to the screening people.

The staff took 7 at a time through registration, counseling, screening, vaccination and observation, creating a constant flow of subjects. I used my ACR as ID for registration and our local QR tracking card as ID to gain entry as a registrant and Davao person, I guess. I think it was after registration that I had a sticker stuck to my shirt to show I passed muster.

It took about two hours for the whole process and I think I was #88 from the time I first sat down after arrival.

We were given a small proof of vaccination card that was filled out by hand by the registrar and the administering nurse and which promptly smeared in spite of my delicate handling and flapping of it to dry the ink. 

I thought it was very well done, even with the usual modern and antiquated processes mixed together.

 

[Huggybearman]

Here in Cagayan de Oro the procedure followed the same routine as previous posters, about 5 steps in total. My first jab was at the local public hospital. I was very impressed with the efficiency of the operation. Took about an hour in total, including a 15 minute post jab observation period. It was very busy, probably in excess of a hundred people being vaccinated during the hour I was there. And the vaccinations were going on all day. Plenty of helpful, courteous and efficient staff ensuring things kept moving. I was truly impressed! It helped that the whole process was a continuous ‘conveyor belt’ type system where you started at one end and exited at the other.

My second jab, exactly four weeks after the first, was a complete shambles. The vaccination center was the top floor (cinema level) of SM Downtown mall. Plenty of courteous staff on hand but few seemed to know what they were doing. Although we were each given a sequence number, it wasn’t followed at all so seemed to develop into a disorganized mob with people trying to jump the various queues! It wasn’t helped by the layout of the cinema level which formed a ‘T’ with people having to backtrack and cross over to different sections to complete the various stages which caused a lot of confusion. As a result it took well over three hours. And I was number 59 in the sequence. I was told to arrive at 7.30am and there were 58 already waiting when I arrived at 7.20am. By the time I left at nearly 11am there were probably 200 hundred people still waiting to start the process. Plus the couple of hundred that were already moving through the system.I believe they are trying to vaccinate a 1000 people a day there. Not impressed at all with the organization of the second vaccination process but very grateful just the same. At least they are trying. 

[Queenie O.]

FYI--Just saying that we were notified that there were doses of Astrazeneca vaccines available at our local town hospital this week and to come in to the hospital to get the second dose. It has been just about 12 weeks now for the interval between the two, so I was relieved for that availability. I believe that these doses came from a recent supply manufactured there and coming from Japan.  The vaccine card was filled in completely and we were told to get it laminated with a 2 X 2 color photo placed on the back side, which we did.  I think I've read that there will be a government issued card down the pike, but I'm not sure how that would work.  I was very grateful to get my second dose.

[Queenie O.]

I forgot to mention, no side effects this time.

[hk blues]

We decided to take matters into our own hands and head into the city yesterday to see if we could get "done" as my BIL said he'd dropped by the vaccination centre on Thursday at 3pm and they still had 30 shots available for anyone who wanted it.  No such luck for us, the place was mobbed at 2:30pm.  I seriously doubt the day before was any different but hey ho. I can also report that I saw several instances where folk simply walked in and got right to the front of the queue - it's the Philippines! 

We are classed as province so are behind the city - from next week the city will be jabbing all groups yet the province is still working through the elderly.  

So, we continue to wait.