COVID-19 JABS. Personnel of Bacolod City Health Office store the 3,000 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac jabs that arrived on Tuesday (May 18, 2021), at the city’s cold room facility. The vaccines will be rolled out for the remaining frontline healthcare workers, senior citizens, and adults with comorbidities. (Photo courtesy of Bacolod City PIO)
BACOLOD CITY – More than 18,000 residents here have been inoculated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) since the city government launched its vaccination rollout on March 5.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said in a statement on Wednesday that public confidence in the vaccine is getting stronger as shown in the number of people already vaccinated, based on the report of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the Covid-19 Vaccination Council (CoVaC).
“This is already proof that the vaccines are safe. I’m hoping that more people will come to be vaccinated. Getting vaccinated is our major way of winning against Covid-19,” he added.
The report did not yet include the number of those fully vaccinated or who have completed the two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
On May 17 alone, some 3,681 residents availed themselves of the first dose in 15 vaccination centers across the city.
Currently, the city government is rolling out Sinovac’s CoronaVac and AstraZeneca jabs dispatched by the national government. These are administered to the remaining frontline healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and adults with comorbidities (A3).
Leonardia said while still depending on the vaccine supply allocated by the national government, the city government will try to vaccinate as many people and as fast as possible every time the rationed vaccines arrive.
“Let's do our best to achieve our target number of vaccinees so that we reach herd immunity as soon as we can,” the mayor told the officials of the EOC and the CoVaC, which he both chairs.
On May 3, the CoVaC rolled out the vaccines at SM City Bacolod and on May 8 at the Ayala Malls Capitol Central.
After the recent arrival of 19,420 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, the CoVaC scheduled a rollout in 22 more vaccination hubs in various barangays and school campuses from May 14 to 21.
Leonardia said the city aims to inoculate as many residents as possible once the 650,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines procured using local funds will start arriving in July. (PNA)
