Bacolod City – The City Government opened seven new vaccination centers in selected barangays yesterday [May 14], in addition to the two mall-based vaccination centers, to facilitate faster rollout of the 19,420 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines allocated by the national government for the City.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said, “Our target is to inoculate as many Bacolodnons as possible. While our vaccine supply meanwhile is dependent on the national government allocation, we will try to vaccinate as fast as possible upon the arrival of the vaccines.”
“We expect though that by July when the installments of our locally funded 650,000 AstraZeneca doses start to arrive, we can even accelerate the whole process,” the mayor added.
Of the seven new vaccination centers, five are located in big barangays: Villamonte, Mansilingan, Alijis, Punta Taytay, and Mandalagan.
The other two centers are for clustered barangays – Barangay 39 Cluster and ABES Cluster.
With the opening of these barangay and clustered barangay vaccination centers, there will be a total of nine vaccination centers ready to accommodate Bacolodnons starting May 14, as vaccination centers in SM City Bacolod and in Ayala Malls Capitol Central continue to operate.
The vaccination center in SM has been operating since May 3, while that in Ayala Malls started on May 8.
Aside from the seven vaccination centers that will initially open today, 14 more are later expected to accommodate Bacolodnons residing in Barangays Montevista, Handumanan, Vista Alegre, Felisa, Estefania, Alangilan, Bata, Banago, Granada, Singcang-Airport, and Taculing and in areas under the ETCS Cluster, Barangay 38 Cluster, and Barangay Pahanocoy Cluster.
These new vaccination centers are established for the fast and efficient administration of the latest doses of AstraZeneca vaccines received by Bacolod from the national government last May 11.
Councilor Renecito Novero, chair of CoVaC Vaccination Centers, said these vaccine shots should be administered on target vaccinees within six to seven days.
The target vaccinees are frontline healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and persons with comorbidities (A3) who have yet to be inoculated.
According to EOC deputy for medical Dr. Chris Sorongon, the vaccination will start at 8:30 AM and will follow the same standard operating procedures observed at SM and Ayala malls.
Leonardia, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, and councilors are expected to personally check the flow of the mass vaccination around the city.
Existing EOC procedures will be employed for the vaccination sequence which also takes into consideration the order of registration shown in the city’s database.
Only those who have completed their vaccination registration and have received a call or text from the EOC notifying them of their appointments will be accommodated to avoid overcrowding.
To avail of the free vaccination, register online through this link: tinyurl.com/bcdceironline or at your Barangay Halls.
(News & photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)