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Contributed photoThere were 43,000 more doses of Sinovac vaccines that arrived for Bacolod City and Negros Occidental on Friday, July 23, Department of Health 6 Regional Director Adriano Suba-an said.Negros Occidental received 23,000 additional doses, while Bacolod City was given 20,000 doses, he said.He said a total of 1.3 million of doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been dispersed in Western Visayas so far, with Negros Occidental having received 298,760 doses and Bacolod City 165,340 doses.Negros Occidental and Bacolod City aside from Sinovac vaccines, have also received Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson brands.Dr. Edwin Miraflor Jr., Bacolod City Health Office OIC, said the 20,000 Sinovac doses that arrived Friday will be administered as second doses to Bac...

3ID photoA soldier sustained a gunshot wound following a clash with suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, on Thursday, July 22.Troopers of the 15th Infantry (Molave Warrior) Battalion were conducting combat operations when they encountered about 20 rebels at Sitio Manulaya, Barangay Tan-awan.The firefight that lasted for 30 minutes left one soldier wounded in the left leg. He is now in stable condition.Maj. Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the 3rd Infantry Division based in Jamindan, Capiz, said in a statement Friday, July 23, that after the firefight, the rebels scampered in different directions.He also said the rebel group “suffered an undetermined number of wounded based on the bloodstains seen at the encounter site and the...

The Negros Occidental provincial government is studying the possibility of providing its health workers with booster shots to protect them against the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Thursday, July 22.He also said Negros Occidental frontline health workers, and disaster and quarantine facility personnel recently received more than P41 million in special risk allowances and active duty hazard pay from the Department of Health.Diaz said he has asked the Provincial Health Office to study the possibility of using the provincial government purchased AstraZeneca vaccines as boosters for its health care workers.This is because in Indonesia more than 160 of its health care workers hit with the Delta variant died despite being fully...

Bacolod Comelec photoFormer Rep. Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez is asking the Bacolod City Election Registration Board to dismiss the opposition to the transfer of his voter registration from Victorias City to Bacolod City.Benitez, in his position paper filed by his lawyer Andrei Saril on Wednesday, July 21, before the ERB, asked that the transfer of his voter registration instead be approved.Three oppositiors - Hector Yula, Teodoro Abao and Jonah Abao, who are allied with Grupo Progreso, the party of Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, are opposing the transfer of the voter registration of Benitez to Bacolod City.Benitez has announced that he is running for mayor of Bacolod in 2022 against Leonardia.The prefatory statement in the 27-page position paper of Benitez states ...

Ronnie Baldonado photoBacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia has ordered the extension of the General Community Quarantine with Heightened Restrictions (GCQ-HR) in Bacolod City from Thursday, July 22, to July 31.Leonardia, in Executive Order No. 41, said this was pursuant to the decision of the National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (NIATF-MEID).The mayor pointed out that national health authorities have issued “a massive warning and stern caution about the entry into the Philippines of the Delta variant of COVID-19, otherwise known as B.1,617.2, which has been found to spread more easily among humans and is more contagious and more virulent than the original strain.”Western Visayas health authorities have also issued public warnings aft...

PancitoThe Philippine Army in Western Visayas vehemently denied that there were casualties on the government side during the series of encounters between the state troopers and suspected rebels at Barangay Caningay, Candoni, Negros Occidental, on Tuesday, July 20.The encounters also prompted some families in the area to flee their homes for their safety.The New People’s Army (NPA) alleged Thursday, July 22, that five soldiers from the 15th Infantry Battalion (IB) died in the clashes, and more were reported wounded, a claim that was denied by Maj. Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the 3rd Infantry Division based in Jamindan, Capiz.Pancito, in a video statement, said the allegations of the rebels are all lies, and that nobody from the government side died during the encounte...

Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson on Thursday, July 22, ordered the enforcement of more stringent protocols for inbound travel to Negros Occidental effective immediately, to prevent the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant in the province.Lacson signed Executive Order No. 21-38, Series of 2021 suspending Executive Order 21-34, Series of 2021, that allowed fully vaccinated individuals to enter Negros Occidental without negative RT-PCR test results.The governor said the Delta variant has been linked to new COVID-19 case surges in India, Indonesia, Europe, Israel and the United States. So far 35 cases have also been detected in the Philippines, two of which were in Western Visayas, he added.That is why all inbound passengers are now required negative RT-PCR test results v...

Individuals under the priority groups A2 (Senior Citizens), A3 (Persons with Comorbidities), and A1.8 (Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs) are allowed to get vaccinated against COVID-19 on a walk-in basis in Bacolod City.All they have to do is present proof that they belong to the priority groups – for senior citizens, their senior citizen's ID; for persons with comorbidities, a medical certificate stating their comorbidity; and for OFWs, their agency contract or certification, a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office said Thursday, July 22.Bacolod City started rolling out Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines at the SMX Convention Center, Ayala Malls Capitol Central, and Robinsons Place on Wednesday, July 21.“We will give out J&J vaccines – a single-dos...