Cebu City tagged as priority for COVID-19 vaccines
A nurse prepares to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Guy’s Hospital in London, on December 8, 2020. A Philippine health official meanwhile, gave his assurance that Cebu City, previously tagged as the epicenter of Covid infection in the country, will be a priority when a vaccine from a reliable source will be made available. (Photo by Frank Augstein / POOL / AFP)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City will have ample allocation of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine should the national government be able to purchase it from an accredited source.
This was revealed by Mayor Edgardo Labella who claimed to have received such assurance from Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr., the chief implementor of the national Interagency Task Force (IATF) for COVID-19.
“Secretary Galvez told me that Cebu City will be a priority for the vaccines,” said the mayor.
Labella said that he learned with his recent talks with Galvez, that the national government will be allocating only a portion of the vaccines to each local government unit (LGUs), due to limited budget.
However, since Cebu City has been saving up at least P500 million for the purchase of the vaccines from the unspent money of the recent P3.2 billion COVID-19 funds, the city government can purchase more to augment its supply of the vaccines.
Galvez told Labella that a tripartite memorandum of agreement can be conducted with the city government, the national government, and the chosen pharmaceutical company that will supply the vaccines.
At least two pharmaceutical companies are nearing the completion of their trials for the vaccines including Pfizer and AstraZeneca. These are the two more likely candidates as suppliers for the vaccine in the country, says Labella.
The city’s P500 million budget for the vaccines is not yet part of the proposed 2021 annual budget, which stands at P10.8 billion and is still under scrutiny by the Cebu City Council.
The mayor is also planning to propose a supplemental budget by January 2021 for the vaccines, and he is confident to get the Council’s support for such.
Labella assured the public that the health authorities will be studying how to effectively distribute the vaccine to achieve maximum herd immunity.
“We will target the 70 percent of the population for the vaccine, but if we can, we want to vaccinate all,” he said. /rcg
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