ZAMBOANGA CHIEF Covid frontliner Mayor Beng Climaco has urged parents to have their children inoculated against the deadly Covid-19 respiratory disease.
Pediatric vaccination for 12 to 17 years old has began late last month in Zamboanga and in other parts of the country to ensure protection from Covid-19. “We need to vaccinate our children, especially those who have comorbidity and we are doing our best to get more vaccines for Zamboanga,” Climaco said.
The
Department of Health said only Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are to be used in
pediatric vaccination provided children passed the pre-vaccination assessments
of doctors. “Pfizer and
Moderna vaccines will still be used among children during the nationwide
rollout,” said DOH Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
According
to the Philippine Statistics Authority, there are around 12.7 million children
aged 12 to 17 in the country as of this year.
Last month, Climaco asked the Department of
Health (DOH) and the National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of
Emerging Infectious Diseases (NIATF-MEID) for additional Covid-19 vaccines and
critical care supplies, among others as the City Government continues to battle
the spread of Covid-19 in the community.
The surge
in Covid-19 cases pushed the local healthcare system to the
verge of collapse with private and government hospitals overflowing
with patients and medical frontliners overworked. The spike in infections also
resulted in the shortage of medical oxygen and antibiotic medicines begun in
September.
Climaco, who
was among local chief executives invited to the virtual meeting organized by
the NIATF-MEID and the National Vaccination Operations Center, aired her
concerns, especially in the supply of Covid-19 vaccines. She said the
continuous and steady supply of vaccines will enable not only the city, but
other parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula region to accelerate vaccination rollout
and ensure added protection for the people against the disease.
“I have so
much faith in our vaccination teams and they can accomplish and administer
5,000 to 7,000 doses daily,” she said, but there is not enough supply to
sustain the mass vaccination program.
Carlito
Galvez, who is in-charge of the government’s vaccine procurement program, has trumpeted
that there are enough supply of the medicines, but the truth is Zamboanga City
only gets little compared to Davao City, Davao region and even Cebu and the
National Capital Region which incidentally are all vote-rich areas.
Many local
government executives are also complaining about the unequal distribution of
Covid-19 vaccines and private companies and corporations, including business
groups and chambers of commerce have long wanted to purchase their own vaccines
directly from the manufacturers, but the government has rejected this.
Climaco also
said that there is a dire need for the DOH and the Department of Interior and
Local Government to hire and deploy more contact tracers and medical
frontliners such as additional doctors and nurses to Zamboanga City and to
extend their contracts longer.
In September,
over 45,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from the British-Swedish multinational
pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca were delivered to Zamboanga City and some
36,42o additional doses are also expected to arrive soon.
The delivery
of the vaccine was part of a $2 million (or roughly P100 million) deal Climaco
signed with AstraZeneca early this year.
The initial
P200 million for the purchase of the vaccines are included in the P4.38-billion
2021 Executive Budget of the local government, according to Climaco, who is
also a member of the Committee on Vaccine Availment of the League of Cities of
the Philippines.
Zamboanga is
one of the first cities that entered into a multilateral agreement for the
purchase of vaccines through the League of Cities. The shipment was the second
since July this year after AstraZeneca delivered some 11,800 doses of Covid-19
vaccines purchased by the Climaco administration. The latest delivery of 4,580
vials or 45,800 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines will benefit local
residents.
Climaco said
the local government’s vaccination program targets to cover almost 700,000
residents or 70% of the projected 2021 population of 992,423 inhabitants. She
said more than 460,000 doses of vaccines have been administered in Zamboanga
with or about 25% of the targeted population now fully vaccinated. (Zamboanga
Post)
