BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
An additional 19,420 doses of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered to Bacolod City yesterday that Mayor Evelio Leonardia said were part of the 127,000 AstraZeneca doses allocated by the national government for Western Visayas.
In his letter to Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force for Covid-19 recently, Leonardia requested for an increase in the vaccine allocation for Bacolod from the national government, considering that the city is being hit hard by the new wave of Covid-19 infections.
Leonardia said that romping up the vaccination program of Bacolod will be critical in saving lives and restoring the economic activity in the city.
Emergency Operations Center executive director Em Ang said that, aside from the AstraZeneca vaccines, they were also informed that the 20,000 doses of the China-made Sinovac vaccine will also be delivered to Bacolod this week instead of next week.
As of Monday, the EOC said 13,230 Bacolodnons under the category A1 (frontliners and medical health workers), A2 (senior citizens), and A3 (persons with comorbidities) have been inoculated, Ang said.
She reiterated that the vaccination rollouts at the Ayala Malls Capitol Central and at the SMX Convention Center continue, but only for those who have completed their vaccination registration and have received a call or text from the EOC of their confirmed appointments.
Ang said the schedule of vaccination is based on a first-come, first-served sequence in the order that the registration came into the city’s database.
To avail of the free vaccination in Bacolod, those interested may register online through tinyurl.com/bcdceironline.
MORE QUARANTINE FACILITIES
The city government opened 13 quarantine facilities when cases of Covid-19 increased recently. Ang also said that doctors at the EOC have requested the molecular laboratories to submit samples to the Philippine Genome Center for the identification of the dominant Covid-19 strain in Bacolod and nearby areas.*