ILOILO – Towns with considerably high cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would be provided with more vaccines to be rolled out down to the villages.
“We will focus on critical municipalities. Tagaan ta sila pabor without really affecting significantly ang iban nga banwa. We go directly to the barangays,” said Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.
The Provincial Health Office (PHO) is monitoring which towns have high COVID-19 infections.
Bringing the vaccines to the barangays would be advantageous to residents because they do not have to travel to vaccination sites and risk being exposed to COVID-1 9, said Defensor.
The PHO is currently assembling vaccination teams for the barangay rollout.
The priorities remain the same – healthcare workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, and economic frontliners).
The provincial government will use international jab donations coursed through the national government as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine that the provincial government ordered.
Defensor said the province is expecting up to 50,000 doses of Sinovac and more than 3,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines from the national government.
The government is set to send a letter to the National Task Force against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. to request additional vaccines.
Defensor is also open to house-to-house vaccination for bed-ridden persons.
SANTA BARBARA 1ST BRGY
According to Defensor, the city’s vaccination team will go to the town of Santa Barbara to kick off the barangay-based vaccination.
“Waay pa di sang petsa pero as soon as possible ini. All we have to do is assemble our vaccination team and schedule,” said Defensor.
Defensor also emphasized that coordination is needed between the vaccination team and the local government unit of Santa Barbara.
Crowd control must also be put in place, on top of the strict enforcement of the minimum public health standards, especially social distancing and wearing of facemask and face shield.
Based on the PHO record (as of Sept. 1), Santa Barbara listed 1,476 total confirmed coronavirus cases – 407 active, 1,038 recovered and 31 deaths.
As of Aug. 28, PHO data also showed that 34 out of 60 barangays in Santa Barbara have clustering of coronavirus cases.
These are Agusipan (two), Balabag (22), Balibagan Este (two), Bita-og Taytay (two), Bolong Este (seven), Bolong Oeste (nine), Buyo (18), Cabugao Norte (four), Cadagmayan Norte (17), Cadagmayan Sur (three), Cafe (four), Calaboa Este (two), Canipayan (three), Daga (11), Duyan-duyan (four), Gen. Martin Delgado (25), Inangayan (31), Lanag (eight), Magancina (seven), Malawog (six), Miraga-Guibuangan (two), Nasugban (five), Pal-agon (16), San Sebastian (30) , Talongadian (four), Tigtig (six), Tugas (five), Tungay (12), Zone 1 (nine), Zone 2 (16), Zone 3 (eight), Zone 4 (eight), Zone 5 (16) , and Zone 6 (21)./PN