CEBU CITY – The Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) has appealed for understanding from those who have yet to receive their second dose of the Gamaleya COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of VVOC, said the government is encountering some difficulties in acquiring more supply of the Russian vaccine.
With the delay, Loreche said health authorities are looking into the possibility giving a different COVID-19 vaccine as second to those received the first shot using Gamaleya.
“AztraZeneca, Gamaleya, and Janssen have the same platform when they were created,” Loreche said.
While they have the same platform, Janssen is a single dose COVID-19 vaccine, said Loreche.
The interval of Gamaleya’s first and second dose would last up to three months.
Cebu has received 10,000 doses of Gamaleya and some 5,100 individuals have already received their first dose of the vaccine.
Loreche likewise announced that Cebu recently received 102,960 dozes of Pfizer vaccine.
Of the total doses, 42,120 doses will be distributed to local government units in Metro Cebu.
An additional 63,100 doses are set to arrive in Cebu soon, Loreche said.
The VVOC recently announced that more one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have already been administered in the island of Cebu.