MANILA, Philippines — Caloocan City may realign its budget for next year to augment the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination of over 1.7 million residents, Mayor Oscar Malapitan bared on Friday.
“Yes. Usually, kaming mga LGUs (local government units) gawa na ang budgets for 2021. Madali naman magrealign, kung kakailanganin namin ng pera sa pagbili ng vaccines, kung kukulangin ang DOH (Department of Health),” Malapitan said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.
(Usually, LGUs have prepared their budgets for 2021. It is easy to realign the budget if we need money to buy vaccines.)
As of Thursday night, Malapitan said Caloocan City has logged 12,506 COVID-19 cases, including 350 deaths and 12,047 recoveries.
Carlito Galvez Jr., the country’s vaccine czar, previously said the COVID-19 vaccine may be rolled out by end of 2021 or early 2022.
International pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca have recently announced significant advances and progress in their COVID-19 vaccine trials.