Filipino Health-Care Workers Receive The First COVID-19 Vaccines In Toronto.

Image via CTV News

Filipino health-care workers Anita Quidagen, Cecile Gatiera Lasco and Lucky Aguila were the first three to receive the COVID-19 vaccination at Toronto’s Rekai Centre.

“I would especially like to recognize Anita Quidagen, the first person in Ontario and Canada to receive the shot. Anita is a personal support worker (PSW) from the Rekai Centre at Sherbourne Place, a long-term care home in Toronto. She has worked tirelessly to care for some of our most vulnerable, both throughout this pandemic and since her first days as a PSW in 1988.” Doug Ford said in a statement. 

Rekai Centre at Sherbourne Place is a Long-term care home in Toronto. It was first established in 1988. Anita Quidagen is a personal support worker for Rekai Centre the same year the facility opened. Cecile Lasco is a personal support worker who worked for Rekai Centre for 20 years. Lucky Aguila is a registered practical nurse who joined the Rekai Centre since the pandemic started. They are the first frontline workers who received the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. 

According to CNN, the union’s latest analysis of nurses’ deaths for which race and ethnicity data was available found that 74 of 245 nurses who had died were Filipino during the coronavirus pandemic. It is roughly 30% Filipino nurses who perished from the Covid-19 virus. It is but fitting to protect our nurses during these unprecedented time. 

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