The City of Bacolod received an additional 10,000 vials of Sinovac’s CoronaVac jabs from the national government on Saturday.

The fresh batch of vaccines arrived on board a Philippine Airlines flight from Manila at the Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia thanked the Department of Health-Western Visayas (DOH-6) regional director Emilia Monicimpo for her quick response to the call of the city government for more vaccine supply.

“We appealed and argued that due to the rising cases in Bacolod, the need to accelerate vaccination must also catch up,” he said.

Leonardia, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, and the members of the city’s Emergency Operations Center Task Force held an emergency meeting with officials of the DOH-6 on Thursday.

“The additional 10,000 doses is a big boost to advance our march towards the full vaccination of our people,” the mayor said.

Each vial of CoronaVac is equivalent to one dose.

Dr. Edwin Miraflor Jr., officer-in-charge of the City Health Office (CHO), said the new supply of Sinovac jabs will be administered to individuals receiving either the first dose or second dose.

The latest supply, which was immediately stored at the CHO’s cold room facility beside the Government Center, came after last month’s shipment on May 18, when the city government received 3,000 doses of the China-made vaccines also sent by the national government.

On April 30, Bacolod was able to obtain 7,500 doses; April 12 – 3,000 doses; and April 6 – 2,000 doses.

The first batch of 6,270 vials of CoronaVac arrived in Bacolod on March 5, which started the roll-out of the city’s vaccination program against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Records of the Emergency Operations Center and the Covid-19 Vaccination Council showed that as of June 4, the city government has administered a total of 37,150 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, including 15,432 doses of CoronaVac and 21,718 doses of AstraZeneca jabs. (PNA)