DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Aug. 10 (PIA) -- Negros Oriental received 14,980 doses of Moderna vaccines from the national government.

Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion said the shipment of Moderna vaccines arrived on Aug. 9 along with fresh supply of 10,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine allocated for the province and 5,000 additional doses of Sinovac vaccines intended for Dumaguete City.

Estacion said the Moderna vaccines are intended for persons under the A1, A2, and A3 priority groups.

The vaccine is also a multi-dose vial with a 28-day interval before the administration of the second shot.

The assistant provincial officer assured that the province’s cold storage facility is capable to store the Moderna vaccines.

The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) has yet to decide on the number of allocation per local government unit (LGU) and the schedule of its rollout in the province’s mega vaccination site at the Lamberto Macias Sports Center.

Meanwhile, Estacion reported that the 144,880 individuals in Negros Oriental have received their COVID-19 vaccines since the start of the vaccination rollout.

However, only 77,119 persons have so far completed their vaccination.

This translates to around 8% of the total target number of the populace to be vaccinated which is 879,365.

To encourage more people, especially the senior citizens, to get their vaccine jab, Estacion said the IPHO has initiated an incentive to persons under A4 category who could convince an elderly person to get vaccinated at the IPHO’s vaccine site.

Estacion said individuals under A4 category can avail of walk-in vaccination if they can bring a senior citizen who is also willing to be inoculated.

The IPHO said this strategy has helped increase the number of senior citizens to be vaccinated, but she admitted that the accomplishment is still far from the target number of senior citizens to be inoculated which is more than 133,000.

So far, the number of senior citizens who received their vaccine jab is at 25,000.

Estacion earlier said the IPHO is not yet inoculating persons under A4 since there is still no official guidance from the Department of Health (DOH) Region 7 and the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) giving them the go signal to administer the vaccines for workers in essential industries.

The Provincial IATF has already sent a letter and resolution to DOH-7 and RIATF-7 seeking permission to move on to the next priority group but up to now there is no response from the said agencies.

Estacion said the move was done to obtain uniformity in the implementation of vaccine roll out.

However, the IPHO offered such incentive to A4 persons so that they can be initiate the vaccination in this priority group and also increase the number of people to be vaccinated under A2 category.

She advised the persons under A4 category with existing medical condition to register under A3 in their respective LGUs so that they can get vaccines faster. (RAL/PIA7 Negros Oriental)