By Leonardo Micua

 

I FINALLY got my first dose of the Sinovac vaccine last week and I tell you, I felt no adverse reaction after the procedure, hours after and the days following.

Because I came to the vaccination site early, I was the eighth person vaccinated that day. But I was not the earliest to arrive. The early birds were even older than me.

As advised by my Kumadre who managed to include me in the list to be vaccinated to go to the vaccination site earlier than 9:00 a.m. to avoid the long queue, I woke up early, took a shower, dressed up and had my breakfast.

I was at the site at about 8:45 and was assigned seat No, 7. But after I finished the registration at the triage area, I found out that seat No, 7, was already allocated to somebody.

Nonetheless, everything was smooth and orderly and the nurses, doctors and other staff inside the vaccination area did all their best to help everyone until one gets vaccinated. Our thanks to all of them.

I must confess, I did not feel the needle that was being injected into my arm.

All those who were already vaccinated were ushered to another secured area where everyone was observed for about 15 minutes to watch out any adverse reaction after getting the vaccine. When the time was up, we were made to see a nurse in charge of making everyone sign a document stating that we were all right after getting the jab.

The nurse gave us two paracetamol tablets which she advised us to take should we felt any  fever and another tablet to take if the injection site became itchy. I had no use of these tablets as I felt no vaccination after effect.

I exit the site about 9:40 a.m. In the afternoon, I went malling by my lonesome in order to cool myself to escape the hot temperature outside. That gave me a chance to buy a meal at Shakey’s.

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We were at the newly opened Cabalen Restaurant along Jose de Venecia Expressway just in front the CSI Stadia and the CSI City Mall. It is the newest eatery in the city that serves Pampanga’s best and mouth-watering cuisine on an “eat all you can” basis.

Cabalen is located on one of the spaces in the newly opened Dagupan Lifestyle Center put up by CSI, where two other eateries, the Romantikong Baboy, specializing on Korean food delicacies, and Army Navy Burger, are also set to open in a few days.

Just opened on April 30, coinciding with the reopening of the CSI Warehouse Club at the CSI City Mall, Cabalen is expected to be overflowing soon by steady patrons from Dagupan and travelers.

My former driver Orland described the crowd massing in Cabalen that day was as big as the crowd that queued there when the establishment opened three days back.

We were excited to see new and old faces queuing at the restaurant in order to take a bite at the variety of delicacies. Cabalen can serve even if it was already past 6:00 p.m.

Us, we took our dinner at the back of the eatery to enjoy the cool breeze of the adjacent river, home of the tastiest bangus in the world. Mind you, this is a new place in the city that offers us a perfect place to walk for a while with kids by our side and to roller skate at sundown and sunrise.

We thought that perhaps, Cabalen and other establishment in the Lifestyle Center would draw more tourists to Dagupan City and revive its now moribund economy affected by the pandemic and the officials’ undoing.

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We got wind of the bad news that before the government could enforce a travel ban from India, five Indians managed to enter the country and are now listed as COVID-19 positives.

We were reminded by the Indian variant now sweeping that country.

This is quite alarming considering the fact that India is now in a worst state because of the pandemic, registering as much as 300,000 or more every 24 hours.

A warning by no less than Secretary Francisco Duque III that we may be facing an India-like COVID-19 upsurge if we continue to disregard health and safety protocols.

We should never, never let this happen. Again, I ask all Filipinos to pray for India so that its 1.3 billion people can survive from this worst crisis in their existence.

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