BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The single-dose Janssen coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is highly-favored in Negros Occidental, recording a 93.4 percent utilization rate in its first day of rollout on Monday.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said they delivered 2,644 vials of the vaccine to local government units (LGUs) of which 2,303 were utilized.
Diaz said the J&J vaccines are being used to inoculate senior citizens, pointing out it would be “much easier” as they no longer need to return to vaccination centers for a second dose.
“As we speak sige aton inoculation sa mga vaccination centers sa kada [LGUs],” Diaz said.
The J&J shots are also said to be in “high demand”, with most people asking for it despite the availability of other vaccines.
When asked how extensive the province’s vaccination has become, Diaz said the current figures were still “far away” from the actual target of 1.4 million residents.
“Siguro mga 200,000 (vaccinees) pa lang ta,” Diaz said.
With the distribution of the remaining stock of Pfizer vaccines is about to be completed, Diaz said they are now concentrating on the immediate distribution of the J&J vaccines since they would be able to inoculate no less than 70,000 individuals.
“With the distribution of our J&J vaccines, maka-improve gid ‘ni sa aton statistics,” Diaz stressed.
To note, Negros Occidental earlier received 70,000 doses of the J&J vaccine from the national government on July 19 as part of the 289,900 doses allocated to Western Visayas.
Meanwhile, Diaz is expecting to restart today the distribution of AstraZeneca vaccines for the remaining provincial health workers and frontline economic workers.
By the middle of August, Diaz said, they expect at least 4,000 doses of AstraZeneca.
Previously, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson expressed disappointment over AstraZeneca’s meager delivery of vaccines, pointing out they were made to believe that the British-Swedish jabs would be the first jab to arrive in the country./PN
