The 23,800 vials of Sinovac vaccine earmarked for Negros Occidental and the highly-urbanized Bacolod City arrived yesterday at the Bacolod-Silay Airport, via a Cebu Pacific passenger plane.
Provincial Incident Management team head Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian said the 16,800 doses allocated for Negros Occidental and 7,000 for Bacolod City were immediately transported to the respective cold storage rooms of the city government and the Provincial Health Office.
Caelian said they are expecting more vaccines for Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, as millions of doses of different vaccine brands are set to be delivered to the country this month.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said the Philippines expects to receive about 10 million vaccine doses this month. These consist of 5.5 million Sinovac, 2.28 million Pfizer, 2.28 million AstraZeneca, and 250,000 Moderna doses.
Provincial Administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, said Monday that he asked PHO head, Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, to order all city and municipal health officers to return all unused vaccines, in response to reports on the reluctance of residents in some local government units to be vaccinated.
“We will transfer those vaccines to LGUs that will welcome them,” Diaz said. – GB
