J&J vaccines distributed in BARMM

MANILA, Philippines — The first batch of one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines allotted for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have been delivered.

National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said 30,000 doses arrived in Tawi-Tawi on Monday. The vaccines will be rolled out in Sitangkai, Turtles Island and Mapun Island.

Galvez cited the need to protect Tawi-Tawi due to its proximity to Indonesia and Malaysia, which are experiencing surges in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant.

“Our main consideration in deploying these vaccines to areas with reported cases of Delta variant is because these J&J doses require only one shot,” he said.

Another 30,000 doses were delivered to Basilan on the same day.

A total of 40,000 doses allocated for Sulu were expected to be brought by an aircraft of the Western Mindanao Command yesterday.

The deliveries were part of the more than 3.2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines that the US government provided to the country via the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access or COVAX Facility. The vaccines arrived on July 16 and 17.

Galvez said the BARMM would get more vaccines as over 300,000 of the 10 million doses received by the national government this month have been allocated for the region.

He committed to provide more vaccines to Northern Mindanao, where cases of the Delta variant have been reported.

Meanwhile, 131,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines to be distributed to provinces in Eastern Visayas arrived at the Tacloban airport on Monday.

Along with 8,300 doses of AstraZeneca, the vaccines were transported to the Department of Health (DOH) regional cold chain facility.

Due to constraints in the supply of Johnson & Johnson, the target of distribution are those classified as geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas with substantial number of eligible senior citizens and adults with underlying health conditions.

The AstraZeneca vaccines will be distributed to Ormoc and Palompon in Leyte, which procured the vaccines via a tripartite mechanism with the DOH regional office and the Regional Task Force against COVID-19. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Rudy Santos, Miriam Desacada