The Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines that arrived Wednesday in Cebu will be administered to first-dose vaccinees, the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas said.

DOH-7 chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said the 300 ampules of the vaccine produced by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology will be given to individuals who are master-listed under the A1 to A3 priority groups.

“The 300 doses of Gamaleya Sputnik V vaccines are for the first dose. Their second dose will be delivered,” Loreche said in a message to the local media.

Each ampule is good for one dose which means that 300 individuals from A1 to A3 priority sector will be administered with the Russian-made vaccines, Loreche said.

The Sputnik V vaccines for Cebu are part of the 15,000 doses that arrived in Manila on Tuesday.

The DOH-7, Loreche said, will determine which vaccination site will receive the new brand of vaccines.

Aside from Cebu, the government has also rolled out the jabs in Taguig, Manila, Muntinlupa, Makati, and Parañaque with 3,000 doses each.

“We have the storage capacity (for the Gamaleya vaccines). It’s only the allocated number as given by the national government,” Loreche said.

The vaccine from Russia is the third brand that arrived in Central Visayas via the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

Latest DOH-7 data shows that the region has received a total of 449,010 doses of vaccines.

The region got 257,760 doses of CoronaVac made by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech; 162,000 AstraZeneca made by the British-Swedish firm Oxford-AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Industry Company; and 29,250 doses of Pfizer from Pfizer BioNTech. (PNA)