The Taguig City government targets to inoculate at least 670,000 eligible residents out of its total population of over 1 million with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine, Mayor Lino Cayetano said on Wednesday.
“Ang computation ho namin nasa 670,000 ‘yung above 16-years-old. Sa ngayon ho kasi ‘yung bakuna na available sa merkado, 16 and above or 18 and above ‘yung puwede. Pero we are assured naman by the experts na ‘yung 18 and below, pinag-aaralan ngayon paano sila mababakunahan (Our computations are based on the 670,000 figure, which is above the 16-year-old bracket. For now, that is based on the vaccines available on the market that can be injected into those 16 to 18 years old. We are now studying how they can be vaccinated safely),” Cayetano said during the visit of the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team, led by the National Task Force (NTF) and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to the city.
Cayetano said the city has mobilized 716 medical personnel composed of doctors, nurses, and public health workers who are capacitated to administer the Covid-19 vaccines to residents once these become available.
The city will also deploy at least 400 special teams with five members each who will administer vaccines in four mega quarantine facilities and at least 40 schools that will serve as vaccination centers, he said.
The city would also establish an ID System that will function as pre-registration for vaccination, and the entire step-by-step vaccination process in the city’s mega-vaccination hubs.
Meanwhile, Cayetano said they will start briefing community leaders on the city’s Covid-19 vaccination drive.
“By Friday (Jan. 29), sisimulan na namin yun pag-briefing sa amin mga community leaders, barangay captains, mga homeowners (presidents), mga PTA (parent teachers association) presidents. (Tuturuan) namin sila para magkakumpiyansa sila sa bakuna (By Friday, we will start our briefing for our community leaders, barangay captains, homeowner (presidents), and PTA presidents. We will brief them so that they will have confidence in our vaccines,” he added.
He added that 62 doctors and nurses of the city have been trained for the vaccines’ cold storage management.
The city earlier signed an agreement with Orca Cold Chain Solutions Inc. for the use of its facility in Barangay Bagumbayan as storage for Covid-19 vaccines.
The city was among the localities that entered into a tripartite agreement with AstraZeneca and the national government regarding its procurement of vaccines.
Taguig has 71 active Covid-19 cases. As of January 25, the city already conducted a total of 109,329 RT-PCR tests, which represents 11.07 percent of the local population. (PNA)
