IT’s Astra-Zeneca or bust for the city.
The city government has successfully paid the required P18 million advance payment to a multinational pharmaceutical company for the over 380,000 doses of anti-CFOVID-19 vaccines.
City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña stated that the city’s finance officers were able to remit the aforesaid amount to Astra-Zeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, via bank transfer to formalize the procurement of the needed vaccines.
He said that local officials are keeping their fingers crossed on the projected arrival of the vaccines so that the mass vaccination in the city can be immediately rolled out as the initial 30 vaccination sites are now readied for the said purpose.
Earlier, the local government had procured from the aforesaid pharmaceutical company over 380,000 doses of vaccines that will be used to vaccinate more than 190,000 of the adult population of the city to achieve the prescribed 70 percent herd immunity.
“There are slight delays in the projected arrival of the purchased vaccines (Aztra-Zeneca) but the same will be in the city probably by the first quarter of this year or by the early second quarter,” he said.
However, he pointed out that what is important is that the local government was able to already purchase the prescribed doses of vaccines that will support the aggressive implementation of the city’s vaccination program to achieve the desired immunity of the population.
According to him, there will be more than enough doses of vaccines for the adult population because, aside from the vaccines that the city has purchased, Baguio will also be receiving its share from the vaccines that had been apportioned by the National Vaccine Committee for local governments and forthcoming donations of vaccines from the private sector.
The city has a population of more than 378,000 based on the day culled from the latest census that was conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority where 63 percent or more than 239,000 individuals are said to be adults. Based on the herd immunity of 70 percent, the number of individuals that should be vaccinated is more than 190,000.
Dela Pena disclosed that personnel of the City Health Services Office (CHSO), health professionals, members of the barangay health emergency health teams, and volunteers are working round the clock to ensure that it will be all systems go for the implementation of the mass vaccination program once the vaccines will arrive in the city anytime.
He called on the residents to have themselves vaccinated to prevent them from contracting the Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019.
The city was also able to receive donations of freezers that can store the vaccines while awaiting the rolling out of the local government’s mass vaccination program. – Dexter A. See
