The provincial government of Negros Occidental aims to vaccinate 8,000 individuals daily on average – or 40,000 Negrenses each week – against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) using Pfizer-BioNTech jabs.
“The aggressive vaccine rollout started on Oct. 5 with a utilization rate of 6,000 to 10,000 individuals daily,” said Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz.
Pfizer shots were delivered to the province on Oct. 4 (107,000 doses) and Oct. 9 (43,000).
According to Diaz, the average utilization of the Pfizer vaccine is 93 to 100 percent.
As of this writing, more than 300,000 Negrenses were already vaccinated, about 15 percent of the target population.
“The vaccination rollout already covers the general population,” Diaz said.
Diaz also revealed more localities requested for rapid antigen testing (RAT) kits for expanded contact tracing but they encountered problems on resources.
They have decided to focus on the vaccination rollout, according to Diaz.
With the vaccines, he said, people are protected for up to six months while RAT is fitted just for the time that an individual is tested.
Their target with RAT was to overtake the infection rate with expanded contact tracing, said Diaz.
He said the province now is simultaneously doing the vaccination rollout, expanded contact tracing through RAT and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing.
Source: Panay News