A healthcare worker holds a Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine at Memorial Healthcare System, in Miramar, Florida on December 14, 2020. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Medical workers, the police, contact tracers, and frontliners in Cebu City will be the first to be inoculated with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine should it arrive anytime soon.
This was the promise of Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella for the planned vaccination program of the city the moment the vaccine is already available.
The mayor assured the frontliners that since they continue to put their lives at risk to care for COVID-19 patients, dealing with crowds, and implementing basic health protocols, they will be the first to be inoculated.
The city’s health experts have recommended the vaccine from Pfizer and AstraZeneca for the vaccine options should they be approved by the national government.
However, Labella said the final say on the vaccine would still be the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency that will determine which vaccine can be used in the country.
One of the factors that Labella says the city is looking for is the efficacy rate. Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s vaccines garner 94 percent and 90 percent efficacy rate, respectively.
The Chinese vaccine by Sinovac only has a 78 percent efficacy, a rate the city’s experts deem “not enough” for investing P500 million into.
As of now, the city government has allotted P400 million from the 2021 annual budget and an additional P100 million from an upcoming supplemental budget for the vaccines.
“We want a vaccine that will be effective,” said Labella.
However, this efficacy rate may also be affected by the storage factors for the vaccine. The mayor said the city will choose a vaccine that the city has the capability to store.
A vaccine that may have the best efficacy rate but does not do well in the climate of the country may well be ineffective later.
“Unsay gamit sa vaccine nga maexpire or madaot lang?” said the mayor.
The city government is targetting a 75 percent inoculation rate of the population to ensure herd immunity.
He added that the city will purchase only enough vaccines that it can store at a time so as not to waste them.
The city government hopes the public will support the vaccination program and the prioritized sector will avail for themselves the free vaccination so that the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic will be secured. /rcg