BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The inclusion of Bacolod City in the government’s Covid-19 vaccine prioritization will expedite its inoculation rollout, executive director Em Ang of the Emergency Operations Center said yesterday.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Bacolod and the cities of Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, Zamboanga, Dumaguete, Tuguegarao, General Santos, Naga, and Legaspi are included in the areas prioritized for Covid vaccination.
“Among the areas that will be given priority in vaccination aside from NCR Plus is what we call Plus 10, so we now have ‘NCR Plus 8, Plus 10’,” Roque said in a Palace press briefing.
He said the basis for including these 10 cities in the vaccine prioritization is the surge in Covid-19 cases as well as their being highly urbanized and having dense environments, and their contributions to the economy.
Ang said this will result in the fast inoculation of more Bacolodnons even before the arrival of the 160,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine that the city purchased, adding that it would also mean that the city could already almost wrap-up its vaccination rollout.
MORE CENTERS
She said that as soon as additional vaccines arrive, the city can expand its inoculation drive and open additional vaccination centers.
At present, there are 30 vaccination centers in Bacolod but they do not simultaneously operate daily as their operations are scheduled while the jabs in the malls are from Monday to Friday.
Ang added that they noted a downtrend in the average daily attack and reproduction rate of the virus lately, and, hopefully, this would continue.
Meanwhile, the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City announced that it will temporarily close the Covid Ward at the 4th floor of the West Tower Building to allow for repairs of the sanitary pipelines.
The safety and welfare of the patients and healthcare providers are the primary concerns of the hospital, and its management would like to seek the understanding of the public regarding this development. Additional updates will be issued when it becomes operational, its advisory said.
For inquiries and proper coordination of patient transfer, the hospital hotline numbers are 0917-1007093 or 701-7865.*
