NEGROS Occidental, including its towns and cities, cannot proceed yet with its vaccination rollout for A4 and A5 categories, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Wednesday, July 7, 2021.
The A4 group covers essential workers, frontliners in national government offices, and uniformed personnel, while the A5 cluster includes the indigent sector.
Diaz said at this point, it is still difficult to justify because only about five percent of the targeted population has been vaccinated in the province and that Negros Occidental is still dependent on vaccines given by the National Government.
He also said that there are still those under A1 to A3 categories that include the medical frontliners, senior citizens, and those with underlying conditions that need to be vaccinated.
"We should reach first about 70 percent of those vaccinees to be able to proceed with A4 to A5 categories," Diaz said.
He also said that the deliveries of vaccines to the local government units (LGUs) may resume on Friday, July 9, and that about 500 doses of vaccines will be administered Thursday, July 8, at the Negros Residences.
"There are already several from our economic frontliners who would like to be vaccinated so that they could continue with their economic activities without the fear of getting sick and getting infected," Diaz said.
The Provincial Government received additional Sinovac vaccines on July 6 and Diaz said they are hopeful that the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the Provincial Government would arrive on July 15.
Of the 100,000 doses of British-made AstraZeneca vaccines ordered by the Provincial Government, they are expecting 3,500 doses on July 15.
Diaz also said that there are about 820 doses of Pfizer vaccines that will be administered soon. This is the remaining of the 11,700 doses of Pfizer vaccines that were first received by the province last June.
The Province made the rollout of Pfizer vaccines on July 2 at the Negros Residences and at Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City.