LAOAG CITY, July 21 (PIA) – Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc personally receives additional allocation of vaccines from the Department of Health (DOH) today, July 21.
These include the first batch of 3,400 AstraZeneca vaccine doses procured by the provincial government of Ilocos Norte, alongside 23,350 doses of Johnson&Johnson Janssen; 3,000 Gamaleya Sputnik V; and additional 5,500 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.
In total, the province received 35,250 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in an aim to speed up the vaccination rollout for the priority groups A1 (medical frontliners), A2 (senior citizens), and A3 (individuals with comorbidities).
The second tranche of vaccines is expected to arrive in the coming weeks to accommodate more residents for inoculation as the number of COVID-19 cases in Ilocos Norte are increasing.
The Janssen vaccines, manufactured by Janssen Biotech Inc, a Janssen Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson, will be distributed to each town and city in the province.
High-risk areas will be allocated with more doses such as Laoag City with a total of 4,870 doses and Batac City with 2,090 doses.
Laoag City, which is the capital city of the province, is being considered as “epicenter” of local transmission with 759 active cases of COVID-19 as of July 21.
It is still under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) to contain the spread of COVID-19 and facilitate expanded-targeted contact tracing and testing.
In his new Executive Order (EO), Governor Manotoc has requested the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) to declare Ilocos Norte under General Community Quarantine (GCQ).
“Pending such declaration, there must be an immediate implementation of proactive measures and that restrictions must be put in place to protect lives, slow down the surge of COVID-19 cases, and buy time for health systems to cope,” Manotoc said in his EO.
Salient feature of his new order includes limited movement of residents while curfew and liquor ban are now set from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. except for authorized persons outside residence (APORs), and prohibition of non-essential gatherings. (JCR/AMB/MJTAB PIA Ilocos Norte)
