Negros Occidental and Bacolod City received 20,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines and 4,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines on Tuesday, August 17.
Bacolod City received 10,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines from the national government and 3,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that it purchased, City Administrator Em Ang said.
She said they can use the vaccines for A4 economic frontliners since they are not among those donated to the national government that must be used for those under the A1 to A3 categories (health care workers, senior citizens and persons with comorbidities).
Negros Occidental also received 10,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines from the national government and 600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that it purchased, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.
He said AstraZeneca vaccines also arrived for the Philippine National Police.
About 4,200 more doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that the provincial government purchased are expected to arrive next week, he added.
Negros and Bacolod officials are urging the public to get vaccinated to protect themselves from severe attacks of COVID 19, with the emergence of more contagious variants.
The Department of Health reported 58 new COVID-19 deaths in Western Visayas on Tuesday, none of which were in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City.
Aklan had 29 deaths, Iloilo City – 28 and Capiz -1, it said.
Negros Occidental had 25 new COVID-19 cases and Bacolod City had 22, the DOH added.*