- MITCH M. LIPA
Emergency Operations Center executive director Em Ang is questioning the small share of Bacolod City from the three million doses of Moderna vaccine that arrived in the country last week.
The EOC was informed by the Department of Health Regional Office 6 that Bacolod City will receive this week 15,000 doses of the vaccine, equivalent to 7,500 people, while Iloilo City will get more than 50,000 doses and Iloilo province with 92,000 doses.
Ang said Bacolod also belongs to Region 6, that is considered a new epicenter of the COVID virus. What are lacking in Bacolod are vaccines since there are a hundred thousand residents waiting for their turn and eager to receive the vaccine because of the threat of the Delta variant, she added.
The City has no problem when it comes to vaccine acceptance because of the strong response of the populace since the start of the vaccination rollout, Ang said.
She added that the DOH could have divided the vaccine based on the number of population per local government in the region.
If Bacolod City is given enough supply of the vaccines, the vaccination teams could double their effort in administering shots to people lining up in vaccination centers even past the vaccination hours.
Bacolod has opened two more sites in malls, and this brought to 32 the total number of vaccination centers in the city, including those in the barangays.
Negros Occidental Incident Management Team head, Zeaphard Caelian, also said the province will receive Moderna doses August 9, as per information from DOH 6, but he did not know how many doses will arrive. – MML
