BACOLOD City – A total of 1,608 healthcare workers in public and private hospitals in this city have been identified to receive the Comirnaty Pfizer-BioNtech-adapted bivalent vaccines for enhanced protection against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The vaccines are administered every Friday since July 7 to allow hospital frontliners to have the weekend to rest for possible adverse reactions.
Those who have already availed themselves of the bivalent vaccines included 132 frontliners from the Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital (Riverside Medical Center); 105 from The Doctors’ Hospital; 102 from the Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital; 54 from the South Bacolod General Hospital; and 66 from the Metro Bacolod Hospital and Medical Center.
The reformulated bivalent COVID-19 vaccine has two essential components – the first corresponds to the original strain of the virus, providing broad protection against COVID-19, while the second is tailored to address the Omicron variant, a highly transmissible strain.
The vaccines are given as a third booster to the priority groups, particularly healthcare workers and senior citizens, and shall be administered in designated health facilities.
Identified recipients for the initial rollout are those who received second booster doses four to six months ago. (PNA)/PN
