BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The 3,500 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that the provincial government of Negros Occidental ordered is expected to arrive tomorrow, July 16, the same day Bacolod City would receive 18,200 doses of the same vaccine it ordered early this year.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the team which will transport the vaccines from the Bacolod-Silay Airport to the provincial capitol’s storage facility is already prepared.
The 3,500 doses are part of the first batch of 100,000 doses ordered by the capitol earlier this year.
The Department of Health (DOH) will also send a still undetermined volume of additional AstraZeneca vaccine.
All will be used for the second dose of the vaccinees, Diaz said.
After they finish inoculating the second dose of the vaccine, the remaining doses will be included in the province’s rollout of the first dose.
Diaz also revealed that this month, Western Visayas will be one of the regions receiving a big share – 741,566 doses – of vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Sinovac firms.
These would be equally distributed among the provinces in the region depending on the master-list of individuals under the A1 (healthcare workers), A2 (senior citizens), and A3 (persons with comorbidities) categories./PN
