Iloilo City is ready for the actual mass vaccination once the vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, are already available
This is according to Mayor Jerry P. Treñas and City COVID Team spokesperson Jeck Conlu, citing the successful conduct of the second COVID vaccination simulation exercise (simex) yesterday in Ateneo de Iloilo.
“We are now ready for the actual vaccination. We have already done two simulation exercises for the vaccination. The simex this morning (March 3) is a lot, lot better than the first and our medical personnel will critique the same together with DOH personnel who were around this morning. Provincial health officials, DOH personnel and some hospital personnel were also around to experience the whole process. We are absolutely ready now,” Treñas said.
According to the city mayor it is only imperative that there should be a pre-registration for the QR code and the vaccination so that the process is shortened.
He said he is happy that the results of the vaccination process are quick because of the pre-registration initiative and the QR code system.
“We saw that if one is pre-registered, it will only take between 10 to 15 minutes for the whole process,” said Treñas who personally visited and observed during yesterday’s simex.
Yesterday, a total of 100 volunteers that include the city’s traffic and sanitation personnel and members of the Liga ng Barangay have been immunized using flu and pneumonia vaccines.
Meanwhile, Treñas said that for health purposes, the city will be divided into nine health districts from original seven. The City Proper and Jaro will be split into districts each wherein barangays Duran and Esperanza in City Proper and Jaro Plaza and Barangay Balantang in Jaro district will represent as health district each.
Each district will have four vaccination centers and vaccination for their respective constituents will be done within three to four days.
The city mayor said that the vaccination jobs will be lessened because all hospitals apparently agreed that they will do the vaccination of their medical personnel, utility workers and other personnel, and their respective families.
On the other hand, Conlu said it will depend on the post evaluation on the second simex if there will be a need for more simex before the arrival of the vaccine.
But if he were to assess, yesterday’s simex was more organized, controlled and systematic compared to the first one.
“Ready na kita. Anytime pag mag-abot na ya ang vaccine ready na ang city government,” said Conlu.
He also assured that there was proper coordination with the various health facilities in the city for those who will experience adverse reactions after the vaccination and need to be brought to the hospital.
Meanwhile, though there is no actual survey yet, Conlu believes that there is an increase in the number of residents who agree to be vaccinated. He cited the education campaign carried out by the city government that even the city mayor is spending his time to explain about the vaccination./WDJ