COVID-19 bivalent vaccines for third booster shots of health workers, especially in hospitals, have arrived in Negros Occidental, Dr. Girlie Pinongan, Provincial Health Office OIC, said Monday, June 26.
They are waiting for instructions from the Department of Health although health workers will be the first recipients of the vaccine followed by senior citizens, she said.
The bivalent vaccines serve as protection against other COVID-19 strains, Pinongan added.
The bivalent vaccines that arrived in Negros Occidental were few and as of now will not cover all health workers, she said.
The government of Lithuania donated 391,860 doses of Comirnaty Pfizer-BioNTech-adapted bivalent vaccines to the Philippines through the World Health Organization-led COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility.
Pinongan said regular Pfizer vaccines have also arrived in Negros Occidental for second booster shots.
Negros Occidental had 121 active COVID-19 cases with seven admitted cases at the Cadiz District Hospital on Monday, she said.*