BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental will begin inoculating against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) other frontline economic workers or those under the A4 category, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson announced yesterday.
They will use the first batch (2,900 doses) of vaccines they received from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Philippines, Inc. on July 19, with the shots being part of the 100,000 doses the capitol procured earlier this year, he said.
Lacson emphasized they are yet to use the vaccine donations from the COVAX facility; these are still limited only to healthcare workers, elderly and adults with comorbidities (A1 to A3 categories).
He expressed confidence that they will be able to use the COVAX-allocated vaccines to the A4 category soon, although they must first hit their 40 percent vaccination target for senior citizens.
“We have not reached [that] target yet,” he added.
Negros Occidental recently received 70,000 doses of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines which are part of the COVAX facility donation.
Earlier, however, Lacson did not hide his disappointment over AstraZeneca’s meager release of vaccines.
The governor said he understood that the United Kingdom, which is where the AstraZeneca vaccines were being manufactured, was also facing supply problems. But he said the provincial government chose AstraZeneca because they were made to believe it would be the first vaccines to be delivered this year.
“So many vaccines have come already, and we are just about to receive the AstraZeneca vaccines that we ordered,” Lacson lamented./PN
