BACOLOD City – This city starts rolling out coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinates to hospital personnel aged 60 years old and above today.
Some 3,120 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in this city on March 11, according to City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) here.
“These are good for 1,560 elderly frontliners from hospitals here,” she added.
So far, 500 senior citizen healthcare workers have signified interest to be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, more city hospital workers expressed willingness to be inoculated with Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccines.
“We now have a pending request for an additional 1,500 doses of Sinovac vaccines,” Ang said.
On March 5, some 6,300 CoronaVac doses were delivered to two COVID-19 referral hospitals in this city – the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital and Riverside Medical Center.
Other hospitals such as the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center, South Bacolod General Hospital and Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital also kicked off the vaccination of their healthcare workers.
In another development, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Western Visayas turned over 32 COVID-19 isolation rooms to the city yesterday, March 12, in Barangay Alijis.
The ceremony was graced by Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Cong. Greg Gasataya and DPWH regional director Lea Delfinado.
The additional isolation rooms now complete the 64-room facility that the DPWH constructed for this city. The facility has a total cost of P50 million.
The first 32 isolation rooms were turned over by the DPWH on Oct. 30, 2020.
“This additional facility will further strengthen our position in this continuing fight against COVID-19. This is in coordination and teamwork among government agencies and officials at its best,” Leonardia said.
The entire project has four container-type isolation sets.
Each set comes with 16 rooms furnished with individual air conditioners and comfort rooms, a nurse’s station, a utility room, separate medical staff quarters with comfort rooms for males and females, a sanitation area, water tanks, and a standby generator.
“Even if we may have flattened the curve of infections in the past months, there is no telling when a surge of new cases may come again. These facilities have to be ready, and we are thankful that the national government, through the DPWH, has provided us these facilities,” Leonardia said./PN
