There are now an additional 6,715 fully vaccinated individuals after Vice President Leni Robredo’s NagaVax Express finished administering all of Naga City’s allocated single-dose Janssen vaccines in two days.
Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is a single-dose shot that provides full protection after two weeks. It is said to be 85 percent effective against severe and critical COVID-19 symptoms.
On Sunday, July 25, Robredo announced on Facebook that they were able to “hit our target” to use up all allocated Janssen vaccines from July 23 to 24. She was in her home province of Naga to oversee the program.
However, the vice president also realized that there are problems in the process.
“If day 1 was a breeze, day 2 was a riot. There were too many who trooped to the vaccination sites who were unscheduled. A lot of confusion too. All of those could have been prevented if we had a solid database,” she said.
The first day of the NagaVax Express was scheduled for senior citizens while the second day was for persons with comorbidities.
READ: Robredo announces 5 vaccination sites for Nagavax Express
Robredo said they already made a “number of recommendations” to the city government representatives after making an “assessment” on Saturday, the second and last day of the NagaVax Express.
“Hopefully, those would be acted upon soon so that similar incidents will be prevented in the future,” she added.
The NagaVax Express was a spinoff of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) Vaccine Express, which it piloted in Manila to vaccinate more than 4,500 tricycle, pedicab, and delivery riders.
In a separate post, Robredo said they have been receiving several requests to bring the Vaccine Express to other areas in the Bicol Region.
READ: Robredo ready to bring Vaccine Express to Cagayan de Oro, Vis-Min cities
“Our office is very much willing to go and bring our program to other LGUs. Our problem is we do not have access to supply,” she added.
The vice president earlier explained that although they can bring their mobile vaccination program to different parts of the country, they do not have access to a vaccine supply. They will rely instead on what the local government units can allocate to them.
Her office is working with Cagayan de Oro and Quezon City governments to bring the Vaccine Express there.