BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The national Inter-agency Task Force has classified Local Chief Executives among the priorities for the vaccination roll-out against Coronavirus disease in the Philippines, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said yesterday.
Leonardia, who is also the President of the League of Cities of the Philippines, said Undersecretary Epimaco Densing made the announcement to him over the phone yesterday.
He said this means the 1,634 Provincial Governors, City and Municipal Mayors including 42,046 Barangay Captains all over the country are now classified as essential workers under Category A4.
Leonardia also said that the local chief executives salute Densing for the very quick response to their request for inclusion in the priorities of those who should be inoculated.
The local chief executives through the LCP, made a request to Densing for their inclusion as priorities in the vaccination program of the government last Saturday March 13, during his visit to Bacolod.
Leonardia explained that the rationale, among others, is that the LCEs are in reality also frontliners in the fight against Covid-19 as the exposure and risks they encounter every day in serving their constituents are also high.
The request was also supported by Mayor Mark Golez of Silay City, Negros Occidental, who is also an LCP official and was with Leonardia when the meeting with Densing took place.
Hopefully, this development will inspire and encourage our LCEs to even work harder and more effectively in the implementation of our Covid-19 program, especially now that we are accelerating our efforts to vaccinate as many of our people, and as fast as possible, Leonardia said.
Meanwhile, the Bacolod Emergency Operations Center reported the inoculation of 3,034 frontliners and hospital workers.
Of that number, 2,453 were vaccinated with China-made Sinovac vaccines while the rest were inoculated with Swedish-British AstraZeneca vaccines, Dr. Chris Sorongon said.
Sorongon, who is the deputy for data and Medical Analysis of the EOC, also clarified that none of their staff have been inoculated yet.
He said the 43 who were reportedly vaccinated are not their staff but are hospital workers who got their jabs at the EOC.*