by Raadee Sausa February 17 2021, 2021 LUCENA CITY - The local government of Lucena City has allocated P350-million budget for coronavirus d...
February 17 2021, 2021
LUCENA CITY - The local government of Lucena City has allocated P350-million budget for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine, lawmaker said. Mayor Roderick Dondon Alcala said that "P350-million allocated for the Covid-19 vaccine for the city of Lucena."
The lawmaker also said that he will lead the vaccination to show that people need to be injected.
Moreover, the province of Quezon has alloted P1-billion budget for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.
Earlier, Gov. Danilo Suarez said "the Quezon province allots P1-billion budget for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines."
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 procure vaccines for 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 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.
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