MANILA, Philippines — The Ormoc City government received over the weekend the doses of the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines it purchased for Ormocanons to protect them from the severe effects of COVID-19.
Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez said the 11,000 doses of AstraZeneca and 10,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines arrived on Saturday, August 28. This is a partial delivery from AstraZeneca with an order of 190,000 doses.
“Ninais po ng inyong city government na makasiguro na lahat tayo ay protektado laban sa COVID-19 kung kaya’t ginawan po namin ng paraan na magkaroon tayo ng sapat na bilang ng bakuna para sa lahat. Ako po ngayon ay nanawagan sa inyong lahat na sana ay makiisa tayo sa vaccination program ng pamahalaan nang sa ganun ay magkaroon tayo ng panangga laban sa COVID-19. Mahalaga po ang kalusugan ng bawat isa sa atin,” Gomez said.
Gomez said the city government partnered with various agencies and institutions to find funding support for the vaccine acquisition since he had anticipated delays in the vaccine supply from the national government amid the need to prioritize areas where the number of cases is high.
“I wanted to make sure that Ormoc will not run out of vaccines for our people. I cannot put at risk the health of Ormocanons, especially in the wake of reports that infections from COVID-19 variants, especially the more transmissible Delta variant, have been detected in 16 regions of the country,” the local executive said.
Gomez had recently recovered from COVID-19. “Tuloy tuloy lang po ang ating trabaho. Mahalagang masiguro natin na maayos na naipatutupad ng ating lokal na pamahalaan ang kanyang mga programa kontra sa COVID-19. Sama-sama po nating haharapin ang pandemyang ito, at sama-sama rin po tayong magtatagumpay,” he said.