BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Department of Health dispatched yesterday 20,000 more vials of Sinovac vaccine to Negros Occidental and the highly-urbanized Bacolod City, as the local chief executives continue to clamor for more, in order to accelerate the inoculation of more residents in other priority groups.
Provincial Incident Management Team head, Gerhard Zeaphard Caelian, said 10,000 more vials of Sinovac vaccine were transported by a Cebu Pacific passenger plane, and received yesterday by the provincial government of Negros Occidental, while the other 10,000 vials were given to Bacolod City.
The newly-arrived vaccines were immediately stored in the cold storage facilities of the provincial government and the Bacolod City government.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said that the 15,700 doses of Sinovac vaccine are expected to be fully utilized for inoculation by the different local government units on July 9.
Diaz said earlier that 3,500 of the 100,000 vials of AstraZeneca vaccine ordered by the provincial government are expected to arrive on July 15.
About 105,000 Negrenses have already been vaccinated, as of yesterday, Capitol said.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez also announced yesterday that a total of six million doses of Sinovac vaccine are expected to arrive this month.
With this development, Galvez advised all LGUs that have Sinovac vaccines in their inventory, to ensure that the allocation for the second dose should be used as intended.
“Don’t use the Sinovac vaccine allotted for the second dose as first shots,” Galvez said as he noted a “disparity” in the country’s inoculation program against the Covid-19.*
