By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental provincial administrator affirmed that the province will also receive a shipment of US-made Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

It can be recalled that last Sunday evening, a shipment of 249,600 Moderna COVID-19 doses arrived in Metro Manila, wherein 150,000 of the doses are to be given to the government, while the remaining 99,600 will be provided to the private sector.

Although Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz has yet to receive information as to how many doses the province would receive, he pointed out Negros Occidental is fully capable of storing them just like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines as Moderna vaccines require an ultra low freezer (ULF).

With the current vaccination system of the province and the vaccine’s storage limitation, it is very likely that the distribution of Moderna vaccines will also be limited only to the Negros Residences in Bacolod City and the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City.

Based on information provided by the Department of Health, Moderna vaccines have an overall efficacy rate of 94.1 percent against symptomatic COVID-19.

Fourteen days after getting the second dose also showed that it has an efficacy rate of 100 percent against severe COVID-19./DGB, WDJ