Over 3,000 doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines are now en route to the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte for the continuing mass vaccination of residents in the area.
On Wednesday afternoon, personnel of the Department of Health in Region 1 have dispatched at least 2,000 doses of Gamaleya Sputnik vaccine to be shared equally by Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte for the first dose administration and an additional 1,118 Sinovac vaccines for Ilocos Norte health units who will be administering the second dose of vaccines to those who belong to priority A1, A2, and A3 categories.
As of June, Dr. Rogelio Balbag, provincial health consultant of Ilocos Norte, said a total of 62,772 doses of Covid 19 vaccines have already been administered to residents here.
In the next vaccination rollout, Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc assured the vaccination registration and appointment will be streamlined.
“One difficulty we had was that we did not have much time. So we conducted an online registration. Whoever registered and are qualified according to the Department of Health, they are the ones to be vaccinated,” said Manotoc in an earlier statement.
During the initial rollout of the vaccines, the substitution protocol has messed up a little the administration of the vaccines but for the next round, the governor said he has already spoken to the team from the Provincial Health Office and the Department of Health to verify the priority recipient even if this is a substitute.
By the end of July, a larger amount of vaccines are expected to arrive in the province, including the 120,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that the provincial government has pre-ordered in early February.
“There are minor issues during our initial rollout but I think we can all agree that the biggest challenge is the limited supply of the vaccines. The more vaccines we can get, the sooner we can rollout,” he said.
To date, Ilocos Norte already has vaccinated a total of 6,624 individuals out of its more than 600,000 population.
Source: Philippines News Agency