More COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Bicol

LEGAZPI CITY –– Another batch of anti-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines arrived on Wednesday at the Legazpi Domestic Airport.

The 62,640 vials of British-made AstraZeneca and China-made Sinovac vaccines arrived before noon, Noemi Bron, Department of Health (DOH) Bicol public affairs chief, said.

Bron said the new vaccine arrival is intended as second jabs for medical frontliners and first dose to older persons.

The fresh delivery is the fourth batch of the Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and the second from AstraZeneca.

The vaccines arrived on board a Cebu Pacific commercial flight from Manila at 11 a.m.

The vaccines were immediately brought to the DOH storage facility in this city for inventory and distribution to the six Bicol provinces said, Bron.

DOH data show that the new arrival brings to 192,340 the vaccines allocated for the region for the first to third-level priority groups.

As of the latest count, the region has administered 62,153 doses, of which 54,630 priority individuals got their first dose, while 7,523 had their second dose. Those already inoculated are frontline health workers, senior citizens, and uniformed personnel.

Meanwhile, Bicol has logged 146 new COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, bringing to 2,471 the region’s active cases.
DOH tracker indicated that Bicol has 9,136 cumulative cases since March last year, with 6,072 recoveries and 323 deaths.#

LZB