Negros Oriental Assistant Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Liland Estacion, on Tuesday called on vaccinators in the province to be careful in the administration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines to avoid unnecessary wastage.
Estacion, health committee chair and incident commander of the province’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), in a virtual press briefing, said they found two vials of the Sinovac’s CoronaVac that were short of the needed single dosage of 5ml.
“We will return these once we have done our inventory, and if there are other similar discrepancies in the other vials,” she said in mixed Cebuano dialect and English.
She could not yet give details on wastage during the vaccine administration while the Covid-19 inoculation is ongoing.
She, however, advised vaccinators to “carefully withdraw” from the AstraZeneca vials the prescribed 5ml per dose of the vaccine to avoid wastage. Each vial is equivalent to 10 doses.
Early this month, an initial shipment of 5,000 doses of CoronaVac from the Department of Health (DOH) arrived here, intended for Negros Oriental and nearby Siquijor province.
As of today, 1,623 medical/health workers and front-liners from one government and four private hospitals in this capital city have received the Chinese-manufactured vaccines.
The province also received in the past weekend an initial delivery of 3,140 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines, which will be distributed to the hospitals so they could begin administration of this particular brand, Estacion said.
The first to receive the AstraZeneca vaccines will be front-liners aged 60 and above, she added.
Estacion announced that government-owned community primary hospitals and district hospitals will now be included in the Covid-19 inoculation rollout.
“In summary, tanan na gyud nga mga hospitals sa Negros Oriental ang mahatagan nato ug allocation (all the hospitals in Negros Oriental will be given an allocation),” she said.
Estacion added that Sinovac vaccines will expire in July this year while the AstraZeneca expiration is on May 31 this year. (PNA)
