The Province of Negros Occidental received its first-ever supply of 1,950 vials of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine delivered via a Cebu Pacific flight from Manila on Thursday.
The allocation is part of the shipment received by the national government through the COVAX Facility.
Zeaphard Caelian, head of the Provincial Disaster Management Program Division and commander of the Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT) for Covid-19, said with each vial containing six doses, Negros Occidental was able to obtain 11,700 doses of the US-made vaccine.
“Our province is capable of providing ultra-low temperature storage facility that’s why we received Pfizer vaccines,” he added.
Half of the supply, or 975 vials, were stored at the cold room of Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City while the other half, at the Provincial Engineering Office cold room in this city.
“We hope that we will now have more demand and more takers of the vaccine. Our governor, (Eugenio Jose Lacson) is really concerned over the deaths due to Covid-19. Vaccination is the key to prevent severe cases,” Caelian said.
For now, the provincial government is conducting vaccination for the first three priority sectors — frontline healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and adults with comorbidities (A3).
On Thursday, a simultaneous three-day rollout started in all 31 local government units (LGUs) of the province.
“As instructed by our provincial administrator (Rayfrando Diaz II), we should focus on the vaccination. If a particular town or city will not be able to use up the supply on the same day, we will take back the unused vaccines. That’s the only way we can ensure that all LGUs will consume the vaccines and these will not stay long in their storage facilities,” Caelian said.
He encouraged Negrenses to have themselves inoculated to have protection against Covid-19 while vaccines are still available.
PIMT data showed that as of June 16, Negros Occidental has a total of 17,072 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 1,771 active cases; 14,902 recoveries; and 399 deaths.
Source: Philippines News Agency
