Officials upbeat on inoculating more seniors as J&J vax to arrive in Cebu soon

A senior citizen gets her jab of the COVID-19 vaccine. CDN Digital photo | Mary Rose Sagarino

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebu will soon receive its first shipment of Johnson&Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

The Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) on Wednesday, July 14, announced that Cebu will be allocated at least 200,000 doses of Johnson&Johnson vaccines, which is a single-shot jab.

“There will be 203,833 doses of the Johnson&Johnson vaccines that will arrive in Metro Cebu and for the province soon,” said VVOC spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche in Tagalog during a virtual briefer.

But in a follow-up text message, Loreche said the number of doses allocated for Cebu may be changed since the vaccines are yet to arrive.

“All doses may be subject to changes but these are part of the plan already. We will wait for the finality of the notice once the vaccines arrive in Manila,” she explained.

Loreche confirmed that these doses will be Cebu’s share from the first batch of Johnson&Johnson vaccines to be flown into the Philippines in mid-July.

The country is expected to receive 3.2 million doses of the vaccines developed by US-based Janssen Pharmaceutical from the COVAX facility this July 19.

Loreche also said that ‘senior citizens and other sectors vulnerable to COVID-19 infection’ would be prioritized to receive the Johnson&Johnson vaccines.

“We’re still waiting for the specific guidelines from the National Vaccination Operations but since these came from the COVAX facility, we are expected to follow their (COVAX) guidance on who will be receiving these,” explained Loreche.

“And as far as we know, these will be given and prioritized to our senior citizens and other vulnerable sectors,” she added in Tagalog.

Cebu is one of the priority areas for the national government’s COVID-19 vaccination drive.

With more supplies of vaccines coming soon, Loreche said they are hopeful they would be inoculating more senior citizens here.

“We can sleep better at night knowing our vulnerable sectors are getting protected,” said Loreche.

Based on the recent data from the VVOC, only 46,417 elderlies in Central Visayas, where Cebu belongs, have been fully inoculated against COVID-19 as of July 13.

There are 538, 216 senior citizens in the region qualified to receive free vaccines from the national government. Of this number, 130,145 have already received their first dose.   /rcg

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