20 thousand Astra doses for Cebu frontliners 60 years old and up

CEBU, Philippines — Some 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine have been allocated for Cebu while 12,000 more doses of Sinovac have been earmarked for the medical frontliners here on top of the more than 14,000 already sent here last week.

“We have been informed that we will be receiving a total of 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca,” Department of Health-7 spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche told reporters in a virtual presser yesterday.

She said the AstraZeneca vaccines are intended for the medical frontliners who are 60 years old and above.

There is no word yet as to when the vaccines will arrive in Cebu.

As for the Sinovac doses, Loreche said they are specifically for people 18 to 59 years old.

So far, Cebu has already received 14,680 doses of Sinovac from the national government. The first batch, consisting of 7,200 doses, was intended mainly for the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

The second batch, consisting of 7,480 doses, was distributed to Level 1, 2, and 3 hospitals in Cebu, both government and privately-owned.

As of this writing, 1,557 VSMMC health care workers have been vaccinated. Some 45 of them  have reported experiencing mild adverse effects such as dizziness and slight pain in the injected area but none have so far reported serious side effects.

From an initial 600, there are now 2,310 VSMMC employees who have consented to being inoculated with Sinovac.

Meanwhile, Loreche reported that two other provinces in Central Visayas have received Sinovac vaccines: Negros Oriental got 5,000 doses and Bohol got 3,000.

Loreche said a total of 27,000 doses of Sinovac have been allocated for Central Visayas, but the remaining doses may be delivered only after a new batch will arrive in Manila.

Third vaccinated OFW tests positive

In a separate development, DOH-7 announced that another OFW who was already vaccinated tested positive for COVID-19, the third such case here this year.

The third OFW tested negative upon arrival last month from UAE but was found to be positive when she underwent another COVID-19 test as a requirement for her return to work.

Loreche, however, did not reveal what vaccine was given to the OFW, although the latter had already been inoculated with two doses.

The OFW was asymptomatic all throughout and contact tracing has already been conducted.

DOH-7 has also instructed that blood samples of the OFW be taken for serological study for IGG or antibodies.

As for the two other Cebuano OFWs who had been vaccinated but had also tested positive, their IGG levels were found to be very high, thus their antibodies were high. Hence, DOH-7 said they were no longer contagious in any way.

Medical doctors earlier said that getting vaccinated is not a 100 percent assurance that a person will not contract the virus. They said that the vaccine was, nevertheless, helpful in preventing more serious or life-threatening complications. — JMD (FREEMAN)