TACLOBAN CITY – Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla has directed health officers in the province to come up with their survey forms intended for the vaccination against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) here.
Petilla also said that he projects that at least 100,000 people of the province will receive the vaccine. With the exception of Tacloban City, a highly-urbanized city, Leyte has more than 1.7 million populations.
The governor said that the survey form is necessary so that they could identified those who should first receive the shots.
Petilla noted that while all the 40 towns and Baybay City have confirmed COVID-19 cases, there are villages in the province which remain without any case.
He suggested that the home address and the place of work of the individual should be included in the survey form.
“If this person lives in a village that had never recorded any COVIDd-19 cases and work in a place which also have no cases, maybe we can exclude them on the list of our priority for vaccination,” Petilla explained.
Petilla added that the prioritization will also depends of what kind of vaccine the province will procure noting that there are vaccines which are not suitable for those 16 years and below, senior citizens who are 85-year old and above, pregnant women, and those with comorbidities.
“This is voluntary. We cannot coerce them to be vaccinated but the mayors may talk to them and explain the importance of getting vaccinated,” he said.
The governor added that from his earlier announcement of procuring 20,000 thousand to 30,000 doses of vaccines, he had order the provincial accountant and the provincial budget officer to look for funds so that the province could increase the number of vaccines to be procured.
The governor said that the new target of the province is to vaccinate around 100,000 residents which means they need to procure 200,000 vaccines for two doses.
With this number, the province will be needing more than 60 million, he said. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
