Air Force helicopters deliver Sinovac vaccines to provinces

MANILA, Philippines — The newly acquired S-70i Black Hawk utility helicopters of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) have been utilized to transport COVID-19 vaccines to the provinces.

On Monday, the PAF helicopters brought 2,400 doses of Sinovac vaccines from China to Quezon, Camarines Sur and Albay.

PAF public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Maynard Mariano said 1,200 doses were delivered to the headquarters of the Southern Luzon Command in Lucena City, 600 to the 9th Infantry Division in Pili and another 600 to the Naval Station Southern Luzon in Legazpi City.

“The vaccines will be distributed to hospitals and will be administered to medical frontliners in Southern Luzon,” Mariano said.

The PAF helicopters delivered 250 doses of Sinovac vaccines to Batanes, also on Monday.

Provincial health officer Roel Nicolas received the vaccines at the Basco airport, according to Batanes police chief Col. Ismael Atluna.

The vaccines will be distributed to the Batanes General Hospital, Itbayat District Hospital and various quarantine facilities in the province.

Meanwhile, more medical frontliners were inoculated with Sinovac in Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela and Cagayan yesterday as part of the continuing vaccine rollout.

In Ilocos region, 2,416 health workers or 34 percent on the initial priority list were vaccinated as of Monday, Valeriano Jesus Lopez, Department of Health-Center for Health Development regional director, said.

At least 7,097 health workers will be inoculated with Sinovac vaccines that arrived in the region on March 5, and distributed to eight hospitals in four provinces.

The second batch of vaccines, comprising 25,600 doses, was turned over to the regional health office on Monday night.

At least 24,400 doses will be used to inject medical workers while 1,200 are reserved for Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel, including those of the Naval Forces Northern Luzon.

In Pampanga, health workers at the Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital were the first to be vaccinated. At least 400 were inoculated as of yesterday. – Raymund Catindig, Eva Visperas, Ric Sapnu