In a press conference that was held on Tuesday, Mayor Romualdez stated that he decided to be injected with the Chinese-made vaccine Sinovac to convince the city’s health workers who were hesitant to be vaccinated and to lessen the local resident’s suspicion of the efficacy of the Chinese made vaccine.

“I’m willing to face the consequences but I’m very happy that at least 99 percent of our people – the frontline workers – are now availing of that vaccine,” said Romualdez.
“I made it public so people will be convinced to avail. Many are still scared, I don’t want to say it but it’s true” he added.

The Mayor also denies allegations that he was just doing it to save his own life. Romualdez was not in favor of the idea to return spare vaccine back to the National Capital Region (NCR)

He was also criticized for getting the vaccine that was assigned to health workers.

Lawyer Aldrin Quebec, City Administrator said that the vaccine administered to the mayor was already a “leftover” is because there are health workers who did not use the vaccine.

Atty. Quebec said Mayor Romualdez vaccination are justified citing Resolution No. 4 series of 2021 of the Interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group for COVID-19 that states Group A-1 shall be the priority next to A-4 which includes the Local government officials who are considered frontline workers or essential workers.