BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The Bacolod City government will coordinate with the Bacolod Division of the Department of Education to know the number of teachers willing to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Councilor Renecito Novero, a member of the City Vaccination Council, said yesterday.
Novero, who is also the chairman of the Sangguniang Panglungsod Committee on Education, said that while they do not have the exact number yet, there were already teachers who registered for vaccination, based on the records of the Inter-Agency Task Force.
Novero assured that if additional vaccines will arrive, the teachers will be among the first to be inoculated.
He said that those who teach out of town but are residing in Bacolod can be accommodated as city residents and not under the A4 category.
Novero also said the city government hopes to finish the vaccination of those who are under the A3 category, or those with comorbidities, so they could start with the inoculation of those sectors classified under A4 category that includes teachers.
Some 21 vaccination centers, including three malls in Bacolod to hasten the vaccination rollout, will all be fully operational by the end of the week.
VACCINATION CENTERS INSPECTED
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia along with members of the Emergency Operations Center inspected several vaccination areas in Bacolod yesterday.
Novero said that if the number of vaccination centers are not enough, they may tap the schools under the Negros Occidental Private Schools Sports Cultural Educational Association on the possibility of using their facilities.
Leonardia, meanwhile, thanked Secretary Carlito Galvez for responding positively to his request to give Bacolod more vaccine allocation.
“The 19,420 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will go a long way in the city’s quest to accelerate the vaccination of our people,” Leonardia said.
“While we are in the meantime dependent on what the national government may give to us, we are looking forward to seeing that, by July, when our locally-purchased vaccines come, we’ll have a more stable and bigger and faster vaccination of our people,” he also said.
DONATIONS
Leonardia also received 100 oximeters and 100 blood pressure monitor apparatus donated to Bacolod City by Vallacar Transit Inc., the operator of Ceres buses, during the ceremonial turnover yesterday at the Ayala Malls Capitol Central, where one of the 24 vaccination centers of the City is located.
The donations were turned over by lawyer Julius Entila, vice president for Administration, and will be used in the ongoing mass vaccination program of the City. Joining the mayor were Councilor Cindy Rojas, chair of the Action Team on Non-OFW Returning Residents, City Administrator Em Ang – executive director of EOC and coordinator of CoVaC, secretary to the mayor Edward Joseph Cuansing, EOC deputy for medical Dr. Chris Sorongon, and Ceres south terminal manager Nixon Banbane, a press release from the city said.*
