More Sinovac vaccines arrive in Central Visayas

Over 44, 000 doses of China’s Sinovac that is intended for distribution in Central Visyas arrived in Cebu this Tuesday morning, March 16. | Photo courtesy of Radyo Pilipinas – Cebu

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Central Visayas has already received a total of 107,160 doses of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines as of March 16.

This after the fourth shipment of COVID-19 vaccines, containing 44,800 doses of CoronaVac, arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) at 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday, March 16.

It was already the third shipment of CoronaVac, the COVID-19 vaccine brand manufactured by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac, for Central Visayas.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), said they already received a total of 107,160 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

So far, only two vaccine brands were allocated for the region and these are CoronaVac and AstraZeneca, the latter from British drugmaker AstraZeneca that forms part of the over 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines that European countries donated to the Philippines.

Loreche said the recently delivered CoronaVac vaccines will still be intended for the region’s healthcare workers, particularly those employed by the local government units (LGUs).

“We are happy and grateful to our central office for adding more doses for our healthcare workers here,” said Loreche.

DOH-7 has identified over 54,000 healthcare workers in Central Visayas who are qualified to receive COVID-19 vaccines under the national government’s vaccination campaign.

These include medical frontliners working in the region’s COVID-19 isolation facilities, infirmaries, laboratories, free-standing, clinics, diagnostics centers, and in penitentiaries.

READ: 5.6 million eligible for COVID-19 vaccine in Region 7

/ dcb