Gov. Arthur Yap declared on Monday, May 17, 2021 that Bohol is ready to receive its allocation of the vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech.
The governor made the declaration during an exclusive interview on Monday over Open Forum hosted by Ardy Araneta-Batoy and Dave Albarado.
The governor denied insinuations that the provincial government is allegedly not interested to receive the said vaccine. This comes as some quarters have been harping about the decision of the governor not to purchase ultra-low temperature freezers which are needed to store the Pfizer vaccine.
The governor said that vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez reiterated to the former that Bohol does not need to acquire the ultra-low temperature freezers just to get the Pfizer vaccine.
The governor explained that Bohol can still get Pfizer vaccine supply coming from Cebu via shipper boxes which uses dry ice to prevent the said vaccine from becoming bad.
In the same interview, Provincial Health Officer officer-in-charge (OIC) Cesar Tomas Lopez said that the national government has not informed the provincial government of any upcoming allocation of the Pfizer vaccine any time soon.
The governor said why make an issue about the Pfizer vaccine when there is no guarantee the province will get any.
Moreover, the governor was told that only the National Capital Region, Cebu City and Metro Davao are the only places in the country directly getting the Pfizer vaccines.
Meanwhile, Lopez said that the PHO released 11, 000 doses of AstraZenica vaccine to various municipal health offices in Bohol. The vaccines will be used to inoculate the senior citizens who registered to get the jabs against the Coronavirus disease (Covid).