ILOILO City – More privates groups are appealing to the national government for more vaccines for the city and province Iloilo which are currently under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).
The Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) Panay Chapter issued an “urgent plea for medical assistance and vaccine allocation.”
“We appeal for your kind consideration to provide support to our city and province in terms of the following: urgent allocation of more vaccines; PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corp.) reimbursement to all hospitals; medical supplies/equipment such as ventilators and high-flow nasal cannula; medications such as Remdesivir; and provision of more hospital personnel,” the group wrote Health secretary Francisco Duque III who chairs the Inter-Agency Task Force, and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19.
Hospitals in the metropolis are now full as they also cater to patients from four other provinces in Panay Island. Some have already utilized hotel rooms as hospital extensions.
“With the current surge in coronavirus disease cases in Iloilo City and Iloilo Province, we, internists and frontliners, have clearly visualized and evaluated the current situation among our hospitals and health care facilities. Quality patient care has become compromised due to lack of medical supplies, manpower and funds,” they added.
Aside from PCP, business groups Ayala Business Club-Iloilo and POPA Agriculture Cooperative also made similar appeals.
POPA Agriculture Cooperative through its chairman Johnny Que calls not only for more vaccine allocations but also more nurses and health worker, additional COVID medicines, and PhilHealth reimbursements to hospitals with COVID-19 related cases.
Earlier, the Iloilo Business Club, Iloilo Economic Development Foundation, Inc. (ILED), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI)-Iloilo and the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Iloilo, Inc. (FCCCII) also wrote Duque and Galvez.
APPEAL FOR BAYANIHAN
Meanwhile, Mayor Jerry Treñas is appealing for help.
“Whatever you can give, I appeal to you to help your own barangay. Many are affected due to the effects of COVID and the quarantine,” Treñas said.
“The spirit of bayanihan will get us through this. Let the Ilonggo spirit of binuligay out very strong in this pandemic,” Treñas stressed.
He thanked donors and big businesses for providing relief goods to quarantined families.
Some 500 people are currently housed in city-run quarantine facilities, the highest since the start of the pandemic last year.
The business sector has also appealed for additional vaccines from the national government.
The city has yet to receive the vaccines it ordered.
“We have a population of 500,000. If we target 70 percent of the population, that is 350,000. If we add those working in the city but are from the other LGUs (local government units), we add another 100,000. So the total targeted population to be vaccinated is 450,000,” Treñas explained.
So far, the city already vaccinated about 40,000 people – 8,000 of these have been given their second doses.
“We need more vaccines because we are facing an infectious and virulent second surge right now,” he emphasized./PN
