BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Another batch of 6,000 vials of Sinovac vaccine for Bacolod City and Negros Occidental arrived at the Bacolod-Silay Airport yesterday.
Negros Occidental and Bacolod City will get 3,000 doses each, the Department of Health said.
Engineer Percy Malonesio, Civil Aviation Airport manager, supervised the unloading of vaccines from Manila via a Cebu Pacific plane.
The vaccines were immediately brought to the cold storage facilities of Bacolod City and the Provincial Health Office. Each vial of the Sinovac vaccine is equivalent to one dose.
The latest shipment was on top of the 23,500 vials of AstraZeneca vaccine received by Bacolod and Negros Occidental on April 30.
A total of 32,400 vials of Sinovac vaccine arrived at the Iloilo International Airport yesterday for distribution to the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo, and Iloilo City, the DOH said.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said yesterday that the national government is eyeing to start the Covid-19 vaccination rollout to A4 and A5 priority groups, that comprise of essential frontliners and the indigent population, once the vaccine supply becomes steady. Once the rollout reaches the indigent population, there will be fewer doubts on whether the AstraZeneca vaccines can be administered before these will expire in June or July, Galvez said.*
