ILOILO City – The city government plans to also vaccinate against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) non-resident workers here.
For this, according to Mayor Jerry Treñas, 200,000 more vaccines would be procured from British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
Last week, the city government entered into a tripartite agreement with AstraZeneca and the national government for the advance procurement of 600,000 vials of AZD1222 Vaccine that could cover 300,000 city residents (the vaccination requires two doses).
The target number of persons for vaccination is 60 percent of the city’s total population of about 474,250
“We need to immunize everyone to make sure the economy can move forward,” Treñas said.
AZD1222 Vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. It has been modified to look more like coronavirus – although it can’t cause illness.
When the vaccine is injected into a patient, it prompts the immune system to start making antibodies and primes it to attack coronavirus infection.
The vaccines, according to Treñas, are projected to arrive in May at the earliest.
In a related development, the city government plans to bring back the swab testing station at the Iloilo Airport in Cabatuan, Iloilo for arriving residents stranded elsewhere in the country.
The two-week moratorium for the arrival of returning locally stranded individuals (LSIs) will end on Jan. 21.
“We will again put our testing station at the airport on Jan. 22 so we can swab those who will enter the city,” said Treñas.
The moratorium was enforced due to spike in COVID-19 infections among repatriates.
As of Jan. 17, Iloilo City’s cumulative cases of coronavirus disease 2019 hit 4,798 since recording started in March last year.
But with 4,479 cases having recovered and 154 death, the metro’s active cases currently stand at 164./PN
