Bacolod City – The Bacolod City government launched yesterday its second “Vax-i” bus, in partnership with Vallacar Transit Inc., as the city government hopes to reach as many vaccine recipients in keeping with the target to hasten efforts to achieve herd immunity, executive director Em Ang of the Emergency Operations Center said.
The mobile vaccination clinic is one of the innovations by the EOC that, in the past months, has established many “firsts” in the vaccination drive, she added.
Leading the launch yesterday were Mayor Evelio Leonardia, councilors Cindy Tan-Rojas, Carl Lopez, and Bart Orola, and other city government department heads.
Vallacar Transit Inc., through its president, Leo Rey Yanson, matriarch Olivia Yanson, and Ginnette Dumancas, has offered the use of one of its buses for the mobile vaccination drive of the City.
“As in many occasions in the past, VTI has supported the city in the fight to end Covid-19,” Ang said in a Facebook post.
Leonardia said that with the second Vax-i bus in operation, the city government hopes to reach as many vaccine recipients as possible.
The EOC efforts these past months, the mayor said, have been highly commendable as the team of Ang, the doctors, nurses, and frontliners have introduced innovations and established many “firsts” in the vaccination drive that are now being replicated by other local government units in the country.
Leonardia said these pioneering initiatives include the recent implementation of the mobile vaccination using the city government’s bus, dubbed as Vax-i, or the vaccine taxi that initially inoculated 4,752 market vendors and Business Process Outsourcing employees, and the drive-thru vaccination at the 5th level parking area of Ayala Malls Capitol Central, on top of the ongoing inoculation at mass vaccination sites, malls, and other on-site venues available at major BPO companies.
“Our goal is to make the vaccines available to as many Bacolodnons. This way, we keep our communities safe as well as our loved ones,” the mayor added.
On August 13, Leonardia led a simple launch of the Vax-i mobile vaccination drive at the BCGC.
Ang said the Vax-i bus drives around Bacolod with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers on board, who will administer Covid-19 vaccines to workers in the marginalized sectors.
CoVaC reported that the local government has, so far, inoculated 180,045 residents, with close to 80,000 fully vaccinated, as of August 15.
(News & photo by The Visayan Daily Star via Bacolod City Public Information Office)