THE City Government of Bacolod will receive an additional 7,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines Tuesday, June 8, from the national government.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Monday, June 7, that this is on top of the 10,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines that were delivered to the city on Saturday, June 5.
"It means that in only a matter of few days, our city will receive a total of 17,000 doses, which is a big boost to our aggressive vaccination program. Our local vaccination teams will continuously inoculate our people at the fastest possible time," he said.
Leonardia also expressed his gratitude to Secretary Charlie Galvez and Department of Health (DOH) Regional Director Emilia Monicimpo for keeping Bacolod on the priority list of the national government vaccination plan.
"We salute our men and women who have been tirelessly doing this noble job of vaccinating Bacolodnons in our desire to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible," Leonardia said.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), said the additional vaccines will be administered to the priority groups A1 and A3.
He said they are still waiting for the guidelines to inoculate the priority group under A4.
He said the National Government earlier announced that they may start the vaccination this month for the priority group A4, but for the city, they have not yet received a copy of the guidelines for the said group.
A4 group covers frontliners, government employees, essential workers, and uniformed personnel.
Familiaran noted the additional vaccines will be inoculated to 8, 500 individuals under the priority groups A1 and A3.
The City has an ongoing vaccination rollout at SM City Bacolod and Ayala Malls Capitol Central.
Familiaran said they are also eying to open another vaccination center in Robinsons Mall in the city.
The vaccination centers will accommodate the healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and persons with comorbidities (A3) eligible priority groups who have yet to receive Covid-19 vaccine jabs.
They will accommodate only those who have completed their vaccination registration and have received a call or text from the Emergency Operations Center of their confirmed appointments.
Familiaran said he is hopeful that by next month, the city's purchased 650,000 doses of AstraZeneca will be delivered so that the city will no longer dependent on the national government vaccines' supply.
