Bacolod City – Covid-19 Vaccination Council continues with its on-site workplace vaccination drive by inoculating business process outsourcing workers of ARB Call Facilities over the weekend.
City Administrator Em Ang, concurrent executive director of the Emergency Operations Center and CoVaC coordinator, said the vaccination team, led by EOC deputy medical Dr. Anna Maria Laarni Pornan and nurse Kaye Marie Malapitan, had vaccinated a total of 372 ARB employees upon the request of its Human Capital Supervisor Jaivie Tabarno.
Both the EOC and the CoVaC are chaired by Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
The CoVaC had earlier conducted on-site vaccination drive in various BPO firms, including Transcom, PanAsiatic Solutions, Concentrix, and Ubiquity Global Services.
It had also inoculated employees of Teleperformance and Focus Direct at the vaccination center in Ayala Malls Capitol Central.
The EOC and the CoVaC have introduced innovative and aggressive strategies to the vaccination campaign of the city – all geared towards achieving herd immunity.
One of these is the Graveyard Shift Vaccination Drive for night-duty BPO workers – the only one of its kind in the country.
Other strategies include the 24/7 vaccination drive, VAX-i mobile bus vaccination, the drive-thru vaccination, the “BigJab Weekend” at two major malls, the mall-based inoculations, and on-site campaign at BPO firms, among others.
“Vaccination is currently the leading public health strategy to end the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to fast-track our vaccination program, we are reaching out to as many workers and populous sectors as possible and making Covid-19 vaccines accessible to all eligible persons,” Ang said.
Leonardia said the city government’s goal is to make the vaccines available to as many Bacolodnons as possible.
Meanwhile, Ang said, a fourth mobile vaccination clinic – or the VAX-i Bus, is now helping accelerate Bacolod’s Covid-19 vaccination drive.
This fourth bus is called the “Philippine Red Cross Bakuna Bus” which is manned by a team of volunteers, with vaccines provided by the Bacolod City government.
The bus is provided by the Vallacar Transit, Inc., operator of Ceres buses, headed by its chief executive officer, Leo Rey Yanson.
The Red Cross bus conducted inoculations in Purok Riverside of Barangay Banago; Santa Clara Subdivision (West), and Bacolod City Public Plaza last weekend.
On Monday, the Bakuna Bus went to Eroreco Subdivision in Barangay Mandalagan. Ang added that the city government and the Philippine Red Cross have ongoing partnership thru the vaccination site at Gaisano City.
(Chrysee Semillano via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)