MEDICAL frontliners in Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) in Dagupan City who have been inoculated with the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines feel blessed and lucky for the protection they have been waiting for against the deadly virus.

“I feel like a superstar,” was how Dr. Agnes Dimaano, 49, a medical specialist from the Department of Pediatrics of the R1MC reacted being the first recipient of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Pangasinan and in the Ilocos Region. “I feel so blessed and lucky that I was the first recipient of the vaccine,” she added.

Dimaano said she did not expect to be the first to be inoculated although she was listed among those to be vaccinated Friday.

She, however, admitted she felt anxious as the vaccine is new but her fear was overcome by the thought of protection that it will give her, her family and her patients.

Aware that the vaccine is just a protection and there’s no guarantee she would not get sick anymore (of COVID-19), she said she still has to follow the minimum health protocols .

Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Dee, a pulmonologist at R1MC, who also got his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine said he had mixed emotions. “Very happy, emotionally bothered, no pain. Thank God I got my first dose already,” he said.

Dr. Rowena Virrey, infectious disease specialist of R1MC said she regarded her first dose of vaccine as an added blanket of protection in managing COVID patients at the hospital. “I am so happy being vaccinated…as a frontliner, I expose myself daily to COVID-19 with my mask and face shield as my only protection,” she said. “I am now more confident in treating patients with COVID-19. Humanity wins over viruses,” she added.

Jeff Tandingan, a nurse at the R1MC, said getting the shot was a matter of assessing risk and benefit. “Since I work at R1MC Binloc Dorm Isolation as a COVID nurse… I knew that the risk of getting COVID was higher than the very remote risk of having a side effect from the vaccine,’ he said. “Getting the vaccine made me feel like I was doing my part in protecting my patients, my family and myself,” he added.

Meanwhile, R1MC Chief Dr. Joseph Roland Mejia reported on national TV that so far none of the employees vaccinated with Sinovac COVID-19 shots experienced any inoculation-related adverse effect.

He said the R1MC personnel easily volunteered to get the jab to exemplify the importance of obtaining vaccine for everybody’s health and safety.

As of March 9, R1MC’s 1,079 employees were already inoculated with Sinovac.. (Eva Visperas)

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