MANILA, Philippines — Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto on Monday said that the city government has allotted P300 million to procure COVID-19 vaccines for its constituents.
“Sa ngayon po nakapaglaan kami ng roughly P300 million para makabili po ng mga vaccines. Pero itong figure na ito, maaari pang madagdagan,” Sotto told DZMM Teleradyo.
(For now, we allocated roughly P300 million to purchase vaccines. However, this figure can still rise.)
“Depende rin po talaga kung pahihintulutan tayo ng Department of Health, kung may pahintulot po na pwede tayo bumili ng vaccines, kung may official guidelines na po, ready po kami,” he added.
(It depends if the Department of Health permits us to buy vaccines, if there are already official guidelines, we are ready.)
Sotto said that aside from working closely with DOH, the city is coordinating with different pharmaceutical companies. He added that approval from the Philippine Food and Drugs Association (FDA) is important for the vaccine they will procure.
He detailed that the medical frontliners and senior citizens will be the first ones who will be inoculated in Pasig.
The mayor assured the public that they would keep the procurement process transparent.
“Kung ilan po ang available sa market, kung ilan ang kaya ng budget natin, gagawin po natin. I assure everyone that we will be very transparent with our procurement process once may presyo na, kung ilan, anong brand,” he said.
(We will procure whatever amount we can get from the market based on our budget. I assure everyone that we will be very transparent with our procurement process — the price, amount of vaccines to be purchased, and the vaccine brand.)
Despite the recent decline in the number of recorded COVID-19 cases in the city, Sotto said they are preparing for a possible uptick following the holiday celebrations.
“Nakita naman natin, steady decline ang nangyayari sa active cases natin ng COVID-19 pero nag-Pasko eh tsaka New Year so nakita natin pati sa ibang bansa tuwing may mga holiday, may one, two or three weeks after talagang nagkakaroon ng spike,” he said.
(We saw a steady decline in our active COVID-19 cases but Christmas and New Year just happened. We also saw that even in other countries a spike in cases occurs after one, two, or three weeks after the holidays.)
“Hindi tayo nagiging kampante. We’re expecting the worst at naghahanda po ang mga ospital natin sa posibleng spike this January,” he added.
(We’re not being complacent. We’re expecting the worst and our hospitals are preparing for a possible spike this January.)
As of Saturday, there are a total of 9,761 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pasig City. One hundred seventy-six (176) of those are active cases, 9,197 recovered, and 388 succumbed to the virus.