City receives 10,000 doses of said American vaccine
TACLOBAN CITY- For three days, thousands of city residents, to include seniors and those with comorbidities, did not mind the long lines just for them to avail the Johnson and Johnson (J &J) vaccine.
And this big turnout of people, even those not qualified and coming from outside the city, was welcomed by health authorities in the city.
Since Tuesday(July 20), throng of people were seen lining up at the two Robinsons malls in the city which serves as the vaccination sites with the American-manufactured vaccine made available in the city.
The Department of Health (DOH) allotted 10,000 doses of Janssen Pharmaceutical-manufactured vaccine to the city.
The city allocation was part of the 131,200 doses of Johnson and Johnson received by the DOH.
Prior to the allocation of this American brand of vaccines, Sinovac and AstraZeneca were used in the vaccination campaign among qualified residents of the city.
Dr. Gloria Fabrigas, city health officer, said that they are pleasantly surprised with the big turnout of people who want to be vaccinated unlike in previous days.
“When we started the vaccination last March 19, the most that we can have, particularly senior, were just more than 400 a day,” she said.
But with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which is administered for one-time only, thousands of people have lined up with assigned personnel constantly reminding the people to observe social distancing.
For this part, City Mayor Alfred Romualdez had encouraged all seniors in the city to avail of the said vaccine.
On Tuesday (July 20), over 3,400 seniors and persons with comorbidities have been inoculated.
And on the following day, over 2,500 were expected to be vaccinated.
Fabrigas said that even those coming from outside Tacloban went to the vaccination sites only to be rejected as only qualified residents of the city are to be given the vaccines.
She said that they even received reports that some accompany seniors not of their relatives to the vaccine sites for them to be inoculated.
The last day for the vaccination using the Janssen would be on Thursday, completing the 10,000 doses of such brand available in the city.
Fabrigas said that they have to receive Information of Tacloban will be given additional Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
Raymundita Kam said that she lined up as early as 6 am to make sure she could receive the vaccine.
“I am suffering scoliosis, among other ailments and I will be flying to South Korea to be with my husband. Janssen is one of the vaccines, which is just a single dose unlike others, accepted in South Korea,” she said.
Since the start of the vaccination in the city, around 45,000 people have been inoculated, still far from the city’s target or around 190,000 people for Tacloban City to achieve herd immunity.
