Bacolod City – The AstraZeneca vaccines set to arrive in Negros Occidental this month will be set aside for the second dose of priority Negrenses, in case there will be a delay in the shipment of supply from the Department of Health, assistant provincial health officer, Dr. Jessica Fama, said.
“We are still waiting for the second dose of AstraZeneca, which is already due next month,” Fama said, adding that the vaccines for the first dose “were already given by the DOH, and they are duty-bound to provide us with the second dose.”
For AstraZeneca, the vaccination interval from first to second dose is 10 to 12 weeks, and the inoculation is usually done after 11 weeks, she added.
The provincial government of Negros Occidental is expecting the arrival on July 15 of 3,500 of the 100,000 vials of AstraZeneca vaccine it had purchased, on top of the vaccines of the same brand it will receive from the DOH.
Fama said there is no problem on the Sinovac second dose, as they have set aside supplies for it, since the interval from first to second dose application is only 28 days, and 21 days for the Pfizer brand.
By July 19, the DOH wants a 90-percent accomplishment in the inoculation of residents in the A1 category composed of healthcare workers and immediate family members, outbound overseas Filipino workers, tourism frontliners, and local chief executives.
Of the targeted 26,654 Negrense recipients in the A1 category, 23,769 got their first dose, and 34,327 of the 44,274 targeted under the A2 category, as of July 12, Fama said.
The Provincial Incident Management Team, meanwhile, transported 3,619 Sinovac vaccine doses to the 15 LGUs of Negros Occidental recently.
Meanwhile, Mayor Bing Leonardia appeals to the NIATF not to implement the MECQ status supposedly set to begin this Friday. Moreover, The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) unanimously approved Resolution No. 332 series of 2021 earnestly urging the National IATF to reconsider its recommendation to place the City of Bacolod under MECQ on July 16 to 31.
The resolution was approved during the online SP Regular Session, presided by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, yesterday [July 14].
(Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)