Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga in the province of Bataan reported that all priests and religious, including church workers, in his diocese have been vaccinated against the coronavirus disease.
The prelate said that all his 64 clergy and diocesan personnel have already received two doses of the vaccine. Those working in Church-run schools have already received their first dose and will soon get the second dose, said the bishop.
“Now our 332 teaching and non-teaching personnel of all nine diocesan schools are being vaccinated. Hopefully by the third week of August, all of them will be done,” said Bishop Santos.
He also assured the diocese’s cooperation with the government’s vaccination program through the use of church facilities and schools as vaccination centers.
The Philippines received another three million Moderna vaccine doses donated by the United States government on Tuesday, August 3, as health officials sought a greater supply of vaccines in the race to contain the spread of the highly-transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant.
The delivery of 3,000,060 Moderna doses follows the US’ earlier donation of 3.2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine, which arrived in the country mid-July.
The arrival of Moderna doses brings the total number of vaccines donated by the US to some 6 million doses – the largest donation so far from a single country to the Philippines.
The latest shipment of vaccines is expected to boost the country’s rollout at a critical point in the pandemic where health officials want to maintain unhampered vaccination activities and increase coverage of high-risk groups.
