TO boost his constituents’ trust in the Covid-19 vaccine, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora on Wednesday sought the permission of Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III to be the first person to be vaccinated in the city.
“The undersigned wishes to seek your approval in allowing this representation to be the first person to be vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine in the City of San Juan. We very well understand that there is a prioritization list as identified by the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force], on top of which are the health care workers and medical frontliners. However, the undersigned is volunteering in order to increase the trust and confidence of our citizens in the vaccination process and to encourage them to have themselves inoculated as well,” Zamora said in his letter addressed to Duque dated February 10, 2021.
Zamora noted that the city City has been “earnestly campaigning” for people to register for the Covid-19 vaccine.
In fact, he said, the city has started the online and offline registration as early as January 4, but ” unfortunately, as of this time, and after a month and six days, we only have a total of 18,602 registrants or just 15 percent of the city’s total population.” As of 8 a.m. of February 10, the city has recorded 23,202 registrants, which accounts for 19 percent of the city’s total population. Of this number, 3,708 are health workers and 19,494 are from other sectors.
This figure, he stressed, is far from their target of 70 percent or 85,526 people to achieve herd immunity.
“We have recently launched our on-the-ground, house-to-house campaign for the vaccine and registration in order to inform, educate and provide access to the online registration so as to convince more people to sign up. But the undersigned personally feels that volunteering to be the first to be inoculated and showing people that the vaccine is indeed safe and effective would be a big boost towards this goal. I am optimistic that this will convince more people to get vaccinated and therefore increase the number of registrants before the actual rollout,” he appealed.
Vaccine roadmap, dilemma
On Wednesday, Zamora presented the city’s roadmap for the city’s Covid-19 Vaccination Program to the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team Visit by IATF and the National Task Force Against Covid-19 (NTF). The National Action Plan deputy chief implementer and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon, National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Secretary Karl Chua, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr., Neda Undersecretary Mercy Sombilla, Department of Health-National Capital Region (DOH-NCR) Asst. Director Paz Corrales, Disease Prevention and Control Bureau (DPCB) Director Aleli Annie Grace P. Sudiacal, Food and Drug Administration Director Joyce Cirunay, and Metro Pacific Hospital Group’s Frank Vibar witnessed the presentation of the city’s microplan.
There’s a wrinkle, however, in the rollout by Metro Manila’s mayors: how to avoid legal liability because of a provision restricting advance payments in the procurement law, when some local government contracts with vaccine maker AstraZeneca required 20-percent advance payment.
Both MMDA’s Abalos and mayors are pinning their hopes on President Duterte issuing an executive order to allow an exception – the only one authorized to do so.
Asked about the current dilemma of local executives on the allowed amount of down payment for the purchase of the vaccines, Zamora said, “Ang layunin naming mga mayors ay mabakunahan ang aming mamamayan upang maging ligtas sila mula sa Covid-19. Sana ay huwag naman gawin dahilan ang mga kasalukuyang limitasyon ng batas para hindi matuloy ang pagbabakuna [The goal of the mayors is to vaccinate our constituents to be protected against Covid-19. I hope that they will not make the limitations of the law as a reason for this vaccination not to push through].”
“Pwede naman magpasa ng bagong batas ang Kongreso o pwede din mag issue ang Pangulong Duterte ng isang executive order upang wala nang maging balakid sa pagbili natin ng bakuna [The Congress or even President Rodrigo R. Duterte can issue an executive order to remove all the obstacles in vaccine procurement being faced by the local governments],” the mayor added.
Simulations since Jan. 13
The local government started running simulations for its Covid-19 vaccination plan since January 13, 2021 to ensure that all processes from storage to vaccination down to post vaccination observation will be efficient and in order.
San Juan City has 18 freezers ready, 16 of which are capable of storing vaccines in 2-8C temperature, and it rented two ultracold freezers for vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca. These freezers are situated in the city’s main vaccination center to cut travel time and avoid spoilage. Five vaccination centers are already on standby.
“We have trained several of our personnel to facilitate the vaccination program. We have 40 teams of vaccinators and we hope to finish vaccinating all San Juaneños in 43 days,” Zamora said during his presentation.
He added, “We have already procured 100,000 doses from AstraZeneca, reserved 10,000 doses from Moderna, and a lot more will be coming from the national government such as Pfizer.”
Aside from presenting the microplan, Zamora also talked about the city’s best practices in increasing the number of registrants for the vaccination like on-ground house-to-house campaign, social media posting, and mainstream media briefings.
He also assured the public that should there be allergic reactions, San Juan City will shoulder the hospital expenses of his constituents who may need to be hospitalized.
“San Juan City has a zero-billing policy at the San Juan Medical Center for constituents. Should there be a need for them to be brought to other hospitals, we have existing agreements with several private hospitals,” he said.
“Although experts assure us that adverse reactions to the vaccine are unlikely, to very minimal,” he added.
For his part, Abalos encouraged San Juañenos and all Filipinos to register and get vaccinated against Covid-19 and shared his family’s harrowing experience with having close relatives infected with the virus. He lost his mother last month after months in the hospital.
Highest in NCR
Meanwhile, Sudiacal congratulated the city for having 19,494 registrants, the highest in NCR.
“This is a very comprehensive and viable vaccination plan. San Juan is ready, kulang na lang po ang bakuna [only the vaccine is lacking],” she added.
Zamora was elated to get good reviews from the CODE Team.
Read full article on BusinessMirror