Medical frontliners of Bacolod’s Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) and the COVID-19 Vaccination Council (CoVaC) have been inoculating city folks residing in remote villages and puroks of Bacolod City since last month.
Former City Administrator Em Legaspi-Ang, concurrent EOC-TF executive director and CoVAC coordinator, said their vaccination team, led by Iris Kerr, has been administering jabs to people from the grassroots as part of the strategy to protect those living in far-flung areas from COVID-19.
Residents of Hacienda Carmen in Barangay Granada were the latest batch to avail of the vaccines Sunday.
Ang said the city government brings the vaccines to hard-to-reach communities, and no less than Mayor Evelio Leonardia himself checked on the vaccination activity.
The purpose of the barangay vaccination initiative, she continued, is to reach out to senior citizens and other eligible adults considering distance and transportation difficulties.
Since the activity’s inception in October, the city’s vaccination team has already served Barangays Granada, Alangilan, Estefania, Mansilingan, Handumanan, Vista Alegre and Mandalagan, Ang explained.
The EOC top executive said their frontliners are targeting as many as there are unvaccinated residents that need to be vaccinated.
Ang recalled that the barangay-to-barangay campaign came about after she and Dr. Chris Sorongon visited Estefania last month and realized there are still many residents that remain unvaccinated, thus, the decision to expand and bring the vaccines to remote sites.
The residents, Ang noted, are thankful of the city government’s efforts to bring the vaccines to them, right at their doorsteps.
“It also helped that our team made efforts to educate them of the effects of the vaccine and its benefits,” she explained.
The decision of Mayor Bing and the COVAC to bring the vaccines closer to residents in far-flung communities resulted from reports on residents’ sentiments about their fears towards the after-effects of the vaccines, as well as the difficulties they have encountered in signing up for their schedules and in travelling to the vax sites and back, to get their jabs, she added.*
