Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas has requested the national government for more COVID-19 vaccines for its priority sectors.
Treñas, in his letter to National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr., requests the provision of 105,250 doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
Treñas noted that there are still more than 6,000 healthcare personnel under A1 Priority Group who have not yet been inoculated, necessitating approximately 12,000 Sinovac doses.
He added that the Iloilo City Health Office gathered data revealed a total of 31,900 senior citizens eligible under the A2 population, entailing 61,120 doses of AstraZeneca and 16,065 individuals below 60 years old with comorbidities falling under A3 Priority Group entailing 32,130 doses of Sinovac totaling to 105,250 doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Given the rapid mutations of the virus and emergence of the new COVID-19 variants, the LCEs in Western Visayas are determined to expedite the vaccination process to reduce the number of deaths, sustain our economy, and achieve herd immunity so that the efforts of our fallen frontliners may not be for naught,” Treñas said.
Citing the Department of Health 6 (DOH-6) data, the city mayor further noted that only 35,394 of the 124,994 masterlisted eligible population in Priority A1 have been inoculated for the first dose, rendering an accomplishment rate of 28. 32 percent.
Treñas added that as of April 11, 2021, only 7.49 percent have received their second dose, notwithstanding the directive for simultaneous vaccination for the first three priority groups.
“It is worth mentioning that while vaccination rollout of LGUs in NCR Plus positively moves on the ground as they are proceeding to inoculate A4 priority group masterlisted, red areas in Western Visayas which equally suffer from surge of new cases and local transmissions have yet to receive sufficient provision of COVID-19 vaccines to finish A1 priority group,” he lamented.
The mayor added that while Iloilo City empathizes the gravity of the present situation in NCR Plus in view of the highly contagious new variants detected thereat, they are in unison that fast-tracking the rollout and more allocation of vaccine doses, not only in NCR Plus but the rest of the regions, must be implemented to achieve herd immunity at the earliest possible time./WDJ