Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella says he is grateful for the offers to use churches and a school gym as vaccination sites in the city. | CDN Digital
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella welcomed the offer of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to use the churches as vaccination sites in the city.
Since there are at least 19 parishes in Cebu City, then the churches will be able to cover the majority of the barangays in the city.
Labella said he was thankful that many sectors were helping the local government units (LGUs) in finding vaccine sites especially that the mass vaccination should begin soon.
Cebu City was promised an allocation of at least 500,000 doses from the national government, and the city government planned to open 22 vaccine sites all over the city.
“This is a very welcome development nga ang CBCP ni-open sa ilang mga simbahan. Karon atong mga vaccination site, upat ra gyod. With the CBCP offer, madungagan kay daghan man tag mga simbahan,” said Labella.
(This is a very welcome development that the CBCP opens their churches for this. Now our vaccination sites are only four. With the CBCP offer, we can add more because there are a lot of churches in the city.
Aside from the Catholic Churches, the Cebu Doctor’s University Hospital (CDUH) is also offering its gym as another vaccination site in the city.
The site can accommodate at least 300 to 500 individuals per day and should help augment the city’s vaccination program.
“Nalipay ko nga mismo ang Cebu Doctor’s University Hospital ni offer sa ilang facilities as vaccination site,” said Labella.
While the city continues to wait for the promised vaccine from the national government, the city will keep the P400 million allotted budget for the vaccines.
The mayor said that although they were not inclined to buy vaccines for now, the city government would want to have a standby fund for the city’s own procurement of vaccines.
“Dili lang nato hilabtan ang budget kay we don’t know until when kutob ang national allotment,” said Labella.
(We will not touch the budget because we don’t know until when will the national allotment of vaccines [will end].)
For now, the budget will remain for future procurement of the vaccines. The Vaccine Advisory Board (VAB) continues to talk with pharmaceutical companies as well for future procurement.
/dbs
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