San Juan City to start dispensing Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on June 30

FILE PHOTO: A Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine vial is pictured at St. Mary’s Hospital, in Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

MANILA, Philippines — The city government of San Juan will start administering the US-made COVID-19 vaccine Moderna on Wednesday, June 30.

San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora will lead the launch of the Moderna inoculation at the city’s main vaccination site at FilOil Flying V Center, at 9 a.m., the local government announced Tuesday.

The vaccines were delivered on Tuesday night at the arena and will immediately be used for inoculation on Wednesday morning for individuals under A1 (health frontliners), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities), A4 (essential workers), and A5 (indignant population) categories.

The San Juan City Health Office had already prepared and underwent training last week for the handling and administration of Moderna vaccines. They rented ultra-low freezers to properly store the vaccines on-site at -25 degrees Celsius to -15 degrees Celsius temperature.

As of June 29, some 69,586 first doses of anti-COVID vaccines have been dispensed in San Juan City. This represents 81.48 percent of its target population of 85,400 to achieve herd immunity.

The city’s active COVID-19 infections were reported to have dropped to 85 as of June 29 from a high 1,226 during the peak of the surge last April 14.

“Mayor Zamora is looking forward to COVID-19 cases drastically dropping once San Juan City achieves herd immunity with 1st doses this July and 2nd doses this coming August,” the city government said in an official statement.

The first shipment of 249,600 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Philippines on Sunday.

The National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) said that 150,000 of these vaccines were procured by the government while the 99,600 were bought by the private sector.

According to the NTF, 20 million doses of Moderna’s anti-coronavirus shot are anticipated to arrive within the year. COVID-19 vaccine brands currently available in the country are Moderna, Pfizer, Sinovac, Sputnik V, and AstraZeneca.

KGA