TACLOBAN CITY –– Eastern Visayas on Wednesday received an additional 14,400 doses of Sinovac vaccine to be distributed to areas in the region with a rising number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
Dr. Exuperia Sabalberino, Department of Health (DOH) regional director, stressed that the vaccines would be administered only to all health workers and other frontliners.
Among the areas that will receive the vaccines is the island town of Tagapul-an in Samar province.
At present, Tagapul-an, which has more than 8,400 population, has 27 COVID-19 cases. Some of its new patients involve health workers and other frontliners.
“These Sinovac vaccines will be distributed all over the region with priority to local government units which have a rising number of cases like Tagapul-an,” Sabalberino said.
“That is why we are reminding our local chief executives to please follow the prioritization criteria. Our frontliners will be prioritized because they are the ones who are most at risk,” she added.
Sabalberino said more than 22,000 health workers and frontliners have so far received their first doses of the vaccines using Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
“We have completed 100 percent for our medical workers assigned at hospitals and rural health units in the region,” she said.
But the DOH official said they have extended their priority list by including those manning the checkpoints and persons assigned at the barangay response teams.
Eastern Visayas currently has 16,906 COVID-19 cases with 66 new patients on Thursday.