SMC vaccinates 22,000 employees in two weeks
11 August – San Miguel Corporation (SMC) reported that it vaccinated 22,000 in its workforce two weeks after it rolled out its nationwide “Ligtas Lahat” COVID-19 vaccination program using company-procured vaccines.
The initial tally, covering July 27 to August 6, puts the company on track to meet its goal of vaccinating some 35,000 employees before the end of August.
This, like SMC, aims to create safe workspaces in all its facilities and offices nationwide to ensure continuous operations, and better protect its workforce against the more transmissible Delta variant.
“Given the emergence of the Delta variant, it’s more urgent for us to inoculate as many people as we can in the coming weeks,” said SMC president Ramon S. Ang.
He added that the company’s scheduled vaccination drives in the National Capital Region (NCR), as well as other provinces, will continue despite the implementation of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the capital from Aug. 6-20.
“This is now our third lockdown in Metro Manila, and if we are successful in vaccinating everyone, we have a good chance of helping the government make it our last,” he added.
Ang thanked SMC’s vaccination task force members nationwide for swiftly executing plans to hold simultaneous vaccination drives for thousands across various SMC businesses, as soon as its company-procured Astra Zeneca vaccines arrived mid-July.
San Miguel has 18 vaccination sites in cities and provinces nationwide, where SMC has significant operations. These include Pasig City and Mandaluyong City in NCR; Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Albay in South Luzon; Pampanga, Isabela, and Bataan in North Luzon; Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan and Bacolod in the Visayas region, and Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, and Malita, Davao Occidental.
Ang also cited the company’s active participation in local government vaccination efforts—through its deployment of over 100 of its own medical nurses and doctors to LGU vaccination sites—as having prepared it for an efficient rollout.
“Helping our LGUs by augmenting their medical staff with our own also gave us good insights as to how we can best implement our program efficiently. We also addressed vaccine hesitation very early on by educating our employees. Vaccination is a major priority for us, as it directly impacts our business operations,” Ang added.
Vaccinees numbering close to 70,000 comprise employees and SMC’s extended workforce across the San Miguel Group—including San Miguel Brewery Inc., San Miguel Foods, Ginebra San Miguel, Petron Corporation, SMC Global Power, SMC Infrastructure, and other major subsidiaries and affiliates.
Prior to the arrival of company-procured vaccines, an estimated 17,000 SMC A4-category workers had already received their COVID-19 jabs through SMC’s partnerships with local governments, as well as directly from their own LGUs.
“I am confident that we can sustain our momentum and that more SMC employees and extended workforce will get vaccinated in the coming weeks. After them, we will turn our focus on the families and others we are in a position to help,” Ang said.
