By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The provincial government of Negros Occidental and the city government of Bacolod have received additional doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccines yesterday morning.

Of the 7,200 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which arrived at the Bacolod-Silay Airport via a Cebu Pacific cargo flight, 5,200 were immediately handed over to the provincial government while the remaining 2,000 were taken by Bacolod City.

Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) deputy for medical, Dr. Chris Sorongon, explained that the shipment was part of the one million doses of CoronaVac vaccines which were bought by the national government.

Sorongon said the newly-acquired vaccines will be used to inoculate another 1,000 health workers in the city.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, head of the Negros Occidental Provincial Health Office, said the 2,600 doses they received will be used to inoculate the remaining health workers in the province who have yet to receive the first dose of the vaccine, while the remaining 2,600 will be used for the second dose.

Just like the previous distribution process, Tumimbang said they will distribute the vaccines among the province’s local government units.

Tumimbang said majority of the hospital workers in the province have already received their first doses and they will soon deliver the second doses after the 28 to 32-day period.

He further added that as of the moment, they can only distribute vaccines to individuals belonging under the A1 category.

Tumimbang explained that they are unable to go to Category A2 and below yet because of the limited vaccines they have.

“As much as we would like na makapanaog na ta sa other priorities, we cannot,” he said.

There are currently a total of 31,000 health workers in Negros Occidental, all of whom belong to Category A1, including those working in the barangay-level./DGB, WDJ