Baguio readies 85 teams for vaccination drive

HILLSIDE COMMUNITY The Baguio City government has assured a systematic and efficient COVID-19 vaccination drive to cover at least 70 percent of its population scattered in 129 barangays, many of them on hillsides like this community in the boundary of Balsigan and Camp 7 villages. EV ESPIRITU

BAGUIO CITY—The city government has formed 85 teams that will inoculate 190,000 residents against COVID-19 until next year, officials said on Wednesday.

These teams will be trained before they are sent to key districts and centralized vaccination sites to cover 70 percent of the city population. The local government is securing vaccines from the British pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca.

Each vaccination team is composed of six members who are licensed health workers, said Dr. Rowena Galpo, city health services officer.

During a meeting with local officials, Galpo said each team would be tasked with injecting 100 residents through a daily schedule of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with only two 15-minute breaks and a lunch hour.

‘Rigorous’

She said the “rigorous” schedule was necessary because of a policy set by the Department of Health (DOH) that the vaccines must be consumed within a week from the time supplies arrive in the locality.

But Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who serves as the government’s contact tracing czar, has asked the DOH to clarify the seven-day deadline, saying it may not be feasible. Baguio was granted 380,000 doses in a tripartite deal with AstraZeneca, but supplies would come in tranches within the second half of 2021. If the city would receive 10,000 doses for the first batch of vaccination, Magalong said these could be injected to the target population in seven days.

STOPPING INFECTIONS People entering Baguio City for business or leisure are required to undergo testing for COVID-19 to prevent the spread of the disease.—EVESPIRITU

“But what if we get the different vaccines at the same time? How do you do it in seven days? It may not be realistic,” he said during the meeting. “Even if we assemble 200 teams, can they inject that many people?”

The mayor had also initiated talks with other pharmaceutical firms, including the Russian manufacturer of the vaccine Sputnik V.

The city’s business community also promised to share half of the vaccine stocks they would buy for their employees.

How vaccines would be stored would also determine how the target number of residents would get the shots, Galpo said.

Teams carrying vaccines which require less stringent temperature-controlled storage units can deliver doses directly to priority recipients, like elderly people who are unable to leave home, she said.

As of Tuesday, Baguio had recorded 22 new cases, raising its active COVID-19 patients to 491. It has listed 4,555 cases since the pandemic was declared in March last year.

More doses for Iloilo City

In Iloilo City, Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city government had ordered 200,000 doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca for nonresidents who are working in the city.

The allocation, he said, was on top of the 600,000 doses the city had earlier secured for 300,000 residents.

Iloilo City, the economic, political and cultural center of Western Visayas, hosts most of the biggest businesses and offices.

“Assuming that the (AstraZeneca) supplies will be delivered, we will have vaccines for 400,000 people at two doses each,” Treñas said at a press conference.

The city government has allotted P200 million for the purchase of vaccines.

The provincial government has also purchased 270,000 doses also from AstraZeneca and has allocated an initial P95 million for vaccines.

Guimaras province has set aside P70 million and Roxas City, P60 million.

Antique province has submitted a letter of intent to AstraZeneca for the procurement of vaccines valued at P50 million. —WITH A REPORT FROM NESTOR P. BURGOS JR.