BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental’s Provincial Health Office (PHO) chief Dr. Ernell Tumimbang said they are awaiting for the “go-signal” from the Department of Health (DOH) with regards to expired AstraZeneca vaccines they have in inventory.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez recently released an advisory that the shelf life of the expired vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be extended to six months.
According to Tumimbang, the PHO has 14,620 AstraZeneca vaccines stored in their cold storage facility.
The vaccines arrived in Nov. 8, 2021; they expired in Nov. 30, 2021.
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. It has been modified to contain genetic material shared by the coronavirus – although it can’t cause the illness. Once injected, it teaches the body’s immune system how to fight the real virus.
Meanwhile, the first day of the third round of the National Vaccination Day in Negros Occidental was held Friday last week with over 15,000 Negrenses receiving their vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COV ID-19).
Records on the first day showed Himamaylan City topping other local government units in the province with 1,287 persons receiving the vaccine, followed by Silay City with 1,193 vaccinees, Bago City with 1,111, and San Carlos City with 1,104.
All in all 14,808 persons in the province’s six congressional districts and 562 coming from the provincial government-run hospitals in Negros Occidental were inoculated on Friday last week./PN
