BY IME SORNITO and DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
ILOILO City – Two mayors in Western Visayas received their initial dose of the vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), making them the region’s first local chief executives (LCEs) to be inoculated.
They were Dr. Raul Banias of Concepcion, Iloilo and Melecio “Beboy” Yap Jr. of Escalante City, Negros Occidental.
Banias, 63, was vaccinated on Thursday, March 18, at the Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center Inc. in Jaro district using a jab from British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
“I went through processes like registration, screening, getting initial vital signs and interview before magkadto sa vaccine site,” Banias told Panay News.
“Very tedious nga process after vaccination,” he went on. “Nagpahuway kita after 15 minutes and monitored then they checked our blood pressure. Sang wala sang na-determine (side effects) we stayed for another 15 minutes.”
Twenty-four hours after vaccination, the mayor said he felt normal despite “may pila ko ka co-morbidities like allergy, asthma, mild hypertension and diabetes.”
He expressed confidence in the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.
“The issue right now, may mga tawo pa nga ginakulbaan,” he said. “That’s why ang mga lideres sang bilog nga pungsod, very visible nga magpa-vaccinate.”
He recalled making a statement “nga kon available na ang vaccine kita ang una mapa-immunize. So, natuman gid man ina tungod sini nga opportunity nga ginhatag sang isa naton ka hospital.”
Banias was a medical staff of the Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center Inc.
As mayor, he said, he had been on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 – from inspecting quarantine facilities and border points to checking the areas on lockdown.
Banias is encouraging other LCEs in Western Visayas belonging to the priority list to follow suit.
“We encourage mayors like me to be immunized kon mahimu pa lang the first person in town. Para madula ang hesitancy sang iban nga nagapangduha-duha pa sa vaccine,” the mayor added.
On the other hand, Yap was the first LCE in Negros Occidental to be vaccinated against COVID-19. He was inoculated Friday morning.
The Vicente Gustilo District Hospital (VGDH) in Escalante City received some 120 CoronaVac vaccines, the mayor said.
Yap spearheaded the vaccination rollout, with his jab administered by Dr. Carmel Arguelles, chief of hospital for VGDH.
The event was also witnessed by the city’s Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Chairman Dr. Vermont Khan Juvahib, Dr. Peter Paul Hinolan of the Escalante City Health Office, and Department of Health (DOH) representative Louie Fernandez.
Yap also followed the inoculation process as recommended by the DOH.
The vaccination program in the city will run until Monday for all of the city’s public health workers, he added.
‘GOOD NEWS’
Bacolod City’s mayor Evelio Leonardia announced this on Thursday afternoon: “Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing just called me to announce the good news that the National IATF has just approved our request to classify LCEs among the priorities for vaccination.”
Leonardia, the national president of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), said the development means that the 1,634 provincial governors, city and municipal mayors as well as the 42,046 barangay chairmen all over the country will be classified as essential workers under Priority Group A4.
‘NOT YET’
Yesterday morning, however, Health secretary Francisco Duque III stressed that local government officials were not yet included in the priority population for vaccination.
“Hindi pa. Kasi uunahin pa rin natin ‘yung ating mga healthcare workers mula sa mga ospital, sa mga temporary treatment and monitoring facilities… quarantine facilities,” Duque told DZMM Teleradyo.
“Susunod d’yan ‘yung mga barangay health workers dahil sila naman ang talagang face-to-face sa maraming tao at mga probable cases ng COVID-19,” he added.
Earlier, the national IATF set specific priority population groups for COVID-19 vaccination.
Frontline health workers in both national and local from private and public facilities, health professionals and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, janitors, and barangay health workers belong to Priority Group A1.
Senior citizens are under Priority Group A2, while persons with comorbidities are under Priority Group A3; under Priority Group A4 are frontline personnel in essential sectors, including uniformed personnel and indigents fall under Priority Group A5.
Teachers and social workers belong to Priority Group B1, other government workers and essential workers are listed under Priority Groups B2 and B3, respectively.
Under Priority Group B4 are socio-demographic groups at “significantly higher risk other than senior citizens and indigenous people,” while overseas Filipino Workers and other remaining workforce fall under Priority Groups B5 and B6, respectively.
The rest of the Filipino population is under Priority Group C./PN
