The Negros Occidental provincial government will roll out the Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Janssen coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine in local government units across the province from July 26-30.
A report released by Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz II confirmed that the province received 14,000 vials, or 70,000 doses of J&J jab from the national government yesterday.
Each vial of the J&J jab contains five doses.
The vaccines will be administered mainly for the A2 to A3 priority sectors, or the senior citizens, and adults with comorbidities, respectively, the report added.
Meanwhile, four areas in Western Visayas have been identified as priority deployment areas for the Janssen vaccines, the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development said.
Data from the Regional Vaccine Operation Center showed that 289,900 doses of the one-dose vaccines will be delivered to the region on July 19-20.
“We already have an allocation list for all provinces and two highly urbanized cities. The target priority group is A2 and A3,” DOH WV CHD medical officer, Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, said in a virtual presser yesterday.
Based on the allocation, the provinces of Antique and Iloilo and the cities of Bacolod and Iloilo have been identified as priority areas.
Antique will receive 25,000 doses, Iloilo province – 80,000, and Bacolod and Iloilo cities, 30,000 doses each.
The rest of the allocations include 70,000 doses for Negros Occidental, 30,000 for Capiz, 15,000 for Aklan, 5,000 for Guimaras, and 4,900 as buffer doses.
Yesterday, 25 boxes of J&J containing 37,980 vials were delivered via the Iloilo International Airport for the province and city of Iloilo and the DOH WV CHD, while Bacolod City and Negros Occidental received 6,000 and 14,000 vials, respectively.
DOH 6 regional director Adrian Suba-an said earlier that the previous agreement was for the J&J vaccines to be used in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
However, changes were made due to the discovery of the Delta variant of the Covid-19 strain in Antique.
“Our concern is not to allow the Delta variant to spread all over Western Visayas. We have to determine, see the bigger picture, cover immediately contain cases,” he said.
The cities of Iloilo and Bacolod have been identified as priority areas while Iloilo province could not be separated from the city, he said.
The city and province of Iloilo have been placed under enhanced community quarantine until the end of this month.*PNA
