The San Juan City government kicked off on Monday, April 12, the inoculation of its senior citizens with Sinovac Biotech-made CoronaVac vaccines after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed its use for 60 years old and above last April 7.

“San Juan City will follow the guidelines set by our experts in our rollout. With the inoculation of senior citizens, a stringent set of rules is in place which we will make sure we implement in the city,” San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said.

Zamora added that the city’s supply of AstraZeneca vaccines has run out which is initially offered to both healthcare workers and senior citizens.

The local government said that it has inoculated 4,407 healthcare workers or 120.51 percent of the 3,657 target healthcare workers initially registered at the city’s special healthcare workers’ registration, 1,038 senior citizens or 11.99 percent of the 8,657 registered senior citizens at the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs, and 2,068 persons with comorbidities, for a total of 7,513 or 8.8 percent of the target population of 85,400 or 70 percent of the total population to achieve herd immunity.

“As long as the vaccines keep on coming, we will continue to vaccinate our constituents. I advise San Juaneños to take whatever vaccine is available. The vaccines are there to protect us, and with us protected, we also protect our loved ones,” Zamora said.

The local government said that it has received another 1,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines from the national government, augmenting its dwindling supply of Sinovac as acceptance of the China-made vaccines increased in the past weeks.

As of April 11, 51,419 San Juaneños have registered with the city’s vaccination registry or 60.21 percent of the target population of 85,400.

The local government clarified that the number has slightly decreased from the previous tally after it found out that several residents have registered multiple times, with one detected with 30 entries.