The provincial government here has allocated some PHP130 million as standby funds for the purchase of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

In an interview on Monday, Governor Daniel Fernando said the provincial government has decided to prepare the standby fund to ensure that the 2.5 million qualified Bulakenyos out of over three million population of the province can be vaccinated.

“Of the 2.5 million qualified to be vaccinated in Bulacan, there are 338,000 to 340,000 senior citizens while 2,186 are public health workers and front-liners. Others are those in private hospitals. This equates to 70 percent of the population of the province to be vaccinated with the vaccines purchased by the national government,” Fernando said during the launching of the Bulacan Republicans basketball team.

Since the national government will lead the mass vaccination, Fernando said there are local government units in this province that will buy their own supplies of vaccines and the provincial government will fill in if more supplies are needed.

Dr. Hjordis Celis, head of the Response Cluster of the Provincial Task Force against Covid-19, said the provincial government has re-considered to purchase the AstraZeneca vaccine in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Fernando said the provincial government has bought four freezers to be used to store the vaccines.

“We plan to add two more units. A unit of freezer that can carry 50,000 doses that costs about PHP700,000,” he added.

As the Bulacan vaccination center, Hiyas ng Bulacan Pavilion of the Bulacan Convention Center is equipped with six partitions in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

The partitions include waiting area, registration area, counseling area, screening area, vaccination area, and observation area. (PNA)