By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The arrival of the 3,500 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine for Negros Occidental has been moved to Friday, July 16, the same day Bacolod City will receive 18,200 doses of the same COVID-19 vaccine it has ordered earlier this year.

Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the team which will transport the vaccines from the Bacolod-Silay Airport to the provincial capitol’s storage facility is already prepared.
The 3,500 doses are part of the first batch of 100,000 doses ordered by the provincial government earlier this year, and were previously scheduled to arrive today.

Diaz said aside from the 3,500 doses, the Department of Health (DOH) has also informed them that they will also send a still undetermined amount of additional AstraZeneca vaccine which would be used for the second dose.

“Whether the 3,500 ordered doses or those supplied by the DOH arrive first, they’ll be used for the inoculation of the second dose,” he said.

The provincial administrator added that after they finish inoculating the second dose of the vaccine, any remaining doses will be included in the province’s rollout of the first dose.

Diaz also revealed that this month, Western Visayas will be one of the regions receiving a big share amounting to 741,566 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Sinovac deliveries. It will be equally distributed among the provinces in the region depending on the masterlist of individuals under the A1 (healthcare workers), A2 (senior citizens), and A3 (persons with comorbidities) categories.

“That is a very good promise sent by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez,” he added./DGB, WDJ