DUMAGUETE CITY, July 9 (PIA) -- The province of Negros Oriental received additional doses of Sinovac vaccines on July 7 to help accelerate its inoculation program.

Assistant Provincial Health Officer and Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force (PIATF) Incident Ground Commander Dr. Liland Estacion said the PIATF received 2,000 doses of Sinovac while Dumaguete City received a separate allocation of 7,000 doses. 

The Sinovac vaccines received by the province will cover the first and second doses of 1,000 individuals, while the 7,000 doses received by Dumaguete City will be given to 3,500 residents. 

In a statement from the Dumaguete City Public Information Office, Mayor Felipe Remollo thanked Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go, and Vaccine Czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. for facilitating the shipment of the vaccines.

As of July 7, Negros Oriental received a total of 72,473 vaccine doses while Dumaguete City received 27,000 doses from the national government. 

Meanwhile, the total number of individuals who received their first dose of vaccines is now at 46,680 while the number of people who completed their second dose is at13,588.

The assistant provincial health officer said the vaccine rollout in the province is affected by the supply of vaccines received by the government.

“Tungod sa delay sa arrival sa vaccine mao na dyutay ang niabot but we are assured na every week naa tay vaccine na maabot for Negros Oriental (We only received a limited number of vaccines today because of the delay of arrival of additional supplies, but we were assured that the province will receive more allocations every week),” Estacion said.

She added that some local government units, including Dumaguete City, have already proceeded to inoculating individuals under the A4 category which covers essential workers in the private and government sectors. (RAL/PIA7 Negros Oriental)