Expected to be delivered by July of this year
TACLOBAN CITY-The city of Ormoc is the first local government unit of the region to purchase the vaccines against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
On Sunday (Jan. 10), Mayor Richard Gomez signed electronically their purchase order for the supply of 270,000 shots of AstraZeneca vaccines.
The vaccines are expected to be delivered to the city by July of this year.
The city government has allotted P350 million for its vaccination program.
The vaccines are projected to inoculate 90 percent of Ormoc’s more than 240,000 residents or those 18 years and above.
The priority sectors of the vaccination program of the city are the senior citizens, health workers and other frontliners, those with existing health problems and the rest of the city’s populace.
The city government chose the brand as it was said to be the cheapest brand in the market and is not difficult when it comes to storage as these vaccines could be stored even in ordinary refrigerator.
Currently, the city has 536 COVID-19 cases of which 70 are considered as active cases with seven confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
Meantime, the town of Naval in Biliran is the latest local government unit in the region to signify plans to procure its own vaccines.
Mayor Gerard Espina said that they have set aside P20 million from their development funds to buy the vaccines.
He, however, could not say yet what brand of the vaccines they will be purchasing except they will chose those with ‘high potency.’
The local government unit will also coming up with their own pre-registration for those who want to receive the vaccines.
Earlier, several local government units in the region have signified their desire to procure their own vaccines.
Among these local government units include the provincial governments of Leyte, Samar, Eastern and Northern Samar and the cities of Borongan, Catbalogan, and Maasin.
The city government of Tacloban has also signified to have their own supplies of the vaccines though Mayor Alfred Romualdez has clarified that they have yet to earmarked a particular amount for this purpose
