Bacolod residents are being urged to register now for COVID-19 vaccination, City Administrator Em Ang said today, January 28.
Registration can be done in one’s barangay or through an online facility being set up by the city government, she said.
We are starting to register residents for the mass vaccination that will begin as soon as the vaccines arrive, she said, reiterating that the city hopes to inoculate 80 percent of its population to reach the herd immunity level.
The vaccines need to be used as soon as they arrive because they do not have a very long shelf life, she said.
The vaccines to be given by the national government to the local governments are expected to arrive earlier, she said.
The 650,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the Bacolod City government will arrive in the second semester of this year, she said.
The AstraZeneca vaccines will cover 325,000 Bacolod residents.
Meanwhile, those interested to volunteer for the Janssen Pharmaceutica COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial may sign up at their barangays or at the city Emergency Operations Center through Dr. Ana Laarni Pornan at the MassKara Hall of the Bacolod City Government Center, Ang said.
Janssen Pharmaceutica, the drug subsidiary of American conglomerate Johnson & Johnson, is recruiting 500 volunteers, who are 40 years old and above, in Bacolod City for the pivotal Phase 3 trials of its COVID-19 vaccine that will start next month, she said.*