The Department of Health sent an additional 14,400 vials of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine to the province of Negros Occidental and Bacolod City yesterday afternoon.
The latest batch of vaccines against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) from the national government arrived at the Bacolod-Silay Airport on board the private plane of former congressman and now Capitol consultant Alfredo Benitez, the Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT) said.
Provincial Disaster Management Program Division head Zeaphard Caelian, who is also the PIMT commander, said the supply included 11,400 vials for Negros Occidental, and 3,000 vials for Bacolod.
Each vial of CoronaVac is equivalent to one dose.
This is the second delivery of the China-made vaccines to the province and the city this month after the arrival of 7,200 vials, also at the Bacolod-Silay Airport, on April 6.
In the previous delivery, 5,200 vials of Sinovac were received by the provincial government while the remaining 2,000 vials went to Bacolod City.
Last month, Negros Occidental received a total of 5,180 vials of CoronaVac, and 74 vials of AstraZeneca. Each vial of AstraZeneca contains 10 doses.
The vaccine supply received by the provincial government was distributed to district hospitals, local government unit-owned hospitals and health units, and private hospitals across the province.
In Negros Occidental, the Covid-19 vaccination program was launched at the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City on March 11, a day after the provincial government first received 1,600 vials of Sinovac.
The provincial government has ordered 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine while the city government of Bacolod has secured 650,000 doses of the same brand, and expected to arrive in the third quarter of the year.*PNA
