Negros Occ. LGUs urged to be ready for more vaccine roll out

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Anticipating the arrival of more vaccines in the next months, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson urged local government units to be ready to handle the doses.

Lacson said the provincial government has measures to expedite the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in all 31 local government units of the province by conducting simultaneous inoculations starting Thursday.

3,792 vaccine doses were transported to the different LGUs in Negros Occidental on June 17 and 18, of which 623 were unutilized, as reported by the provincial government on its social media account.

Lacson said “the reason why the provincial government decided to really push our LGUs is to prepare them for the arrival of more vaccines that will be spread all over the country.”

“We should be ready,” he added.

Lacson said Victorias City can inoculate 1,000 residents in a day, as confided to him by Mayor Francis Frederick Palanca.

Areas covered by the simultaneous vaccination on June 17 and 18 were the cities of Escalante, Cadiz, Victorias, Talisay, Bago, La Carlota, Himamaylan, Kabankalan, and Sipalay, and the municipalities of Salvador Benedicto, Toboso, Manapla, E.B. Magalona, Murcia, San Enrique, Pontevedra, Binalbagan, Candoni, Ilog, Cauayan, and Hinobaan.

The Provincial Health Office has been directed to deliver the exact number of vaccines required by each LGU, as stated in the list of vaccinees submitted by the city or municipality, on the day of the scheduled vaccination.

The governor also said they will closely monitor the performance of LGUs, and will reward those who are fast in their vaccination activities, by giving them more vaccines.

LGUs that utilized 100 percent of the vaccines given to them were Sipalay City, Candoni, Ilog, Salvador Benedicto, Isabela, La Carlota City, Bago City, Valladolid, Murcia, Talisay City, EB Magalona, and Escalante City, records from the Provincial Health Office indicated.

On the other hand, Lacson said Pfizer vaccines will only be administered at the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City and the Negros Residences in Bacolod City, due to its special storage requirement.

Lacson also said that the LGUs will be given their Pfizer allocations after the Sinovac vaccines are fully utilized, based on the “first in, first out” protocol.

Negros Occidental recently received 1,950 vials of Pfizer BioNTech vaccines from the Department of Health.

Each vial of Pfizer, a new brand of vaccines dispatched to the province last week, is equivalent to six doses, or 11,700 doses in total.