Gov. Arthur Yap announced just before deadline last night, July 17, 2021, direct from his location at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, that Bohol is set to receive Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine doses as early as next week.
Yap told the Bohol Tribune about the latest development via an exclusive text message sent to the managing editor Ardy Araneta-Batoy and associate editor Dave Albarado last night.
After continuing efforts to secure more vaccines for tourism workers in Bohol that started in the last two months, Yap, together with Tourism Sec. Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and Vaccine Czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., revealed at the sidelines of the inspection of the stunning, beautiful, and ultra-modern Clark International Airport Terminal Building, the upcoming deliveries of more than 50,000 doses of J&J single dose vaccines for tourism workers, senior citizen workers and workers with co-morbidity in Bohol, possibly by Bohol Day on July 22, 2021 or earlier.
“I wish to thank the national government for their continuing support to Bohol. I am asking now all our mayors and barangay and health frontliners to do their best to tighten the observance of minimum health standards, to continue testing of all first generation contacts, the dis-allowance of isolation at home and increased vaccinations as we heighten efforts to combat our infection rates.” Yap told the Bohol Tribune.
While in Manila, Yap proceeded to the Clark Terminal inspection joining President Duterte, and other ranking government officials.
Prior to the Clark Airport inspection, Yap attended the national assembly of the Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas (PDP)-Lakas ng Bayan (Laban) party at the Royce Hotel at the Clark Freeport Zone.
Yap is a member of the ruling PDP-Laban political party, which is also the party of President Duterte.
To remember, on June 16, 2021, Bohol secured 10,000 vaccine doses that were administered to tourism frontline workers in Bohol.
Yap requested Puyat and Galvez to provide vaccine supplies for the tourism frontline workers in Bohol working in Department of Tourism (DOT)-accredited establishments.
The province received 5,000 doses of Russian-made Sputnik V and 5,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines, according to Provincial Administrator Kathyrin Pioquinto.
On July 7, 2021, Yap also helped facilitate the delivery of 2,482 vaccine doses procured by the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., which was administered to economic frontliners in Bohol under the auspices of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Bohol).
The Bohol Inter Agency Task Force (BIATF) reported on July 14, 2021 that Bohol has received a total of 145, 312 vaccine doses, which comprises the brands AstraZenica, Sinovac, Sputnik V and Pfizer.
Unlike the majority of vaccine brands, J&J’s vaccine is peculiar because it only takes one dose to provide full immunity against the virus that causes Covid.
Other vaccine brands use a two-dose regimen where the second dose is given several weeks after the first dose, reports say.
The J&J vaccine uses the technology similar to what the makers of AstraZenica and Sputnik V are using, which is the virus vector technology, according to reports.