BACOLOD CITY – The provincial government of Negros Occidental received 1,600 doses of the Sinovac vaccine Wednesday.
This is the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines for the province which is part of the initial doses donated by China to the government.
The vaccines were transported from the Bacolod City Government Center cold room to the Provincial Health Office (PHO) cold room.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Ernell Tumimbang said the vaccines will be distributed within a week to provincial government-run hospitals as the first priority.
The first vaccine rollout for the province will be held at the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital with medical and health workers among the first recipients.
Earlier this week, the provincial government requested 6,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the government for local medical frontliners.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said the province has about 8,000 medical frontliners, including those from the hospitals run and managed by the provincial government and some localities.
Tumimbang said the vaccination rollout in the province will start this week to prepare the cold room facility for the next batch of vaccines.