BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental appealed to the national government for additional vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
More healthcare workers of the province needed to be vaccinated, said Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson.
He coursed his request through the office of Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go. Provincial consultant on economic affairs Alfredo Benitez, on the other hand, reached out to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.
The officials hope to get a share of the 525,600 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines which were recently delivered to the country.
These were from the COVAX Facility, a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable access to vaccines led by the World Health Organization and Gavi Alliance.
Galvez earlier revealed that 240,720 AstraZeneca COVID-19 doses would be distributed to all regions this week.
Moreover, Benitez said they are expecting vials of the Sinovac vaccine from the national government on Thursday. These anti-coronavirus jabs would be distributed to healthcare workers of the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City, Negros Occidental.
Lacson, however, said they will probably receive a “limited supply” of vaccines – just about 5,000 to 6,000 doses – although he assured it would be enough for the vaccination of “at least half” of the province’s medical frontliners.
A list of medical personnel from capitol-run hospitals has been submitted to the Department of Health in Region 6.
The number of doses that would be given to the province will depend on the number of frontliners who have signified their willingness to be inoculated.
Negros Occidental has around 8,000 medical frontliners serving in various provincial-run hospitals and clinics in 31 local government units./PN
