Almost 12,000 COVID-19 vaccines arrive for Catanduanes seniors

LEGAZPI CITY—Close to 12,000 COVID-19 vaccines for more senior citizens and people with comorbidities arrived Monday morning at the Virac Domestic airport in Catanduanes province, said the Department of Health (DOH).

Dr. Robert John Aquino, DOH Catanduanes chief, said the vaccines arrived in three boxes containing 9,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccines made by the Janssen Pharmaceutical Company and 2,900 doses of the British-made AstraZeneca.

The vaccines arrived around 7:45 a.m. aboard a Cebu Pacific commercial flight from Manila, Aquino said in a phone interview.

The vaccines were brought to the Provincial Health Office storage facility in Virac town for inventory and distribution.

Aquino said the Janssen vaccines would be inoculated to more senior citizens and persons with comorbidities, while the AstraZeneca would be injected as a second dose.

The remaining vaccines would be given to those who have yet to receive their first dose.

Aquino said the vaccination program had been going on smoothly in the province, with all the health workers vaccinated already.

DOH data as of July 15 in Bicol reveal that 289,914 or 79 percent of the 367,980 vaccines received by the region had been administered.

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