Over a year into the pandemic, the Philippines started its COVID-19 vaccination drive on Monday, March 1.

Dr Gerardo Legaspi, director of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), was the first to roll up his sleeves as he received his first shot of CoronaVac developed by Chinese company Sinovac.

PGH is the top hospital in the country dedicated to treating COVID-19 patients.

The legal vaccination of health workers comes after the arrival of donated vaccine doses from the Chinese government. However, a number of health workers expressed reluctance to receive CoronaVac due to its low efficacy rate.

Aside from health workers, government officials and health experts were also inoculated to boost public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines.

Here’s the list of officials and health experts who already received their COVID-19 shots:

• Philippine vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr (Sinovac)
• FDA General Director Eric Domingo (Sinovac)
• Philippine testing czar Vince Dizon (Sinovac)
• MMDA chairman Benhur Abalos (Sinovac)
• Dr Edsel Salvaña, member of DOH technical advisory group (Sinovac)
• Dr Minguita Padilla, member of government pandemic advisory group (Sinovac)

Rappler will update this page as new advisories come in. – Bonz Magsambol/Rappler.com