Tacloban City opens mega vaccination center

TACLOBAN CITY – Officials of this city on Wednesday opened its “mega vaccination center” at the Tacloban Convention Center which can accommodate at least 5,000 individuals daily.

Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez expressed hopes that this center will help hasten the vaccination campaign to achieve herd immunity, which happens when a large part of the population of an area is immune to a specific disease.

The city government is offering P100 as transportation fare for those who will visit the Tacloban Convention Center.

Aside from the convention center, the city government also has two other vaccination sites located in the shopping malls.

With the opening of the vaccination center at the Tacloban Convention Center, the city government hoped to fast track its vaccination campaign.

So far, more than 75,000 residents of the city have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The city government targets 185,000 to achieve herd immunity.

Romualdez is confident that they will be able to achieve the necessary number of vaccinees to fully open its economy.

In Ormoc City, Leyte, the city government has started inoculating its general population.

Mayor Richard Gomez said they are targeting around 160,000 individuals from this sector to have themselves vaccinated.

So far, more than 88,700 persons in the city have received their first dose of the vaccine. Of the number, 54,376 have been fully inoculated.

On Wednesday, Eastern Visayas has received 403,420 doses of vaccines from the national government.

These vaccines are to be distributed to all six provinces in the region to help them ramp up their vaccination campaign, said Jelyn Lopez Malibago, information officer of the Department of Health (DOH).

The region currently has 643 active cases of COVID-19.

JPV