by Raadee Sausa January 17, 2021 Gov. Danilo Suarez (Photo from his FB Page) LUCENA CITY - The province of Quezon has allotted a P1-billion ...
January 17, 2021
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| Gov. Danilo Suarez (Photo from his FB Page) |
LUCENA CITY - The province of Quezon has allotted a P1-billion budget for the procurement of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines, a lawmaker said.
Gov. Danilo Suarez on Wednesday said, "the Quezon province allots P1-billion budget for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines."
Earlier, local governments will be allowed to procure COVID-19 vaccines for their constituents who are not on the government’s priority list of people who will receive the inoculation, Jonathan Malaya said, undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
He said the national government was committed to procuring vaccines for a majority of Filipinos, but local governments are not prohibited from doing so as well.
Local governments that had allocated funds in their budgets for vaccines could purchase those already approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Malaya said.
For his part, Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the mass vaccination drive would initially focus on epicenters of the pandemic, including Metro Manila, Calabarzon, and Central Luzon regions, as well as the key cities of Davao, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, Bacolod, Iloilo, Zamboanga, Tacloban, and General Santos.
After assessing which areas where the vaccine will need to be deployed, eligible populations in these areas will be prioritized for inoculation.
On the priority list are front-line health workers, workers of select government offices, senior citizens, indigents, and uniformed employees.
The government has allocated P72.5 billion for the purchase, storage, shipment, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the proposed P4.5-trillion budget for 2021.
The Philippine government is requesting a $325-million (about P15.6 billion) loan from the Asian Development Bank to procure the COVID-19 vaccines.
Moreover, health authorities in Quezon, earlier, recorded five deaths from COVID-19 four days in the new year, bringing the total death toll to 193.
The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) disclosed on January 4, that four COVID-19 patients – one each in the town of Candelaria and Tayabas City and two in the municipality of Lopez – were the latest listed fatalities.
On Sunday, another patient also died in Unisan town.
The IPHO records showed that 25 COVID-19 patients died last month. In November, 53 have died of the disease.
On Tuesday, the IPHO report showed that the number of active virus carriers in the province jumped to 257 from 245 the day before.
The highest tally of active COVID-19 cases in Quezon was recorded on October 31 with 921. This number fell to 760 at the end of November.
Quezon, which remains under the modified general community quarantine status, logged a total of 6,278 COVID-19 cases and 5,828 recoveries since the pandemic broke out in March.
At least 19 localities of 41 towns in the province are now considered COVID-19-free.
Those previously infected in areas have either recovered or died, the IPHO report showed.
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