City eyes earlier delivery, more  orders for COVID-19 vaccines

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas is seeking faster delivery and additional orders of vaccines against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to inoculate residents and non-residents who work in the city as early as possible.

In an interview with Aksyon Radyo Iloilo, Treñas said he had been asking British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca to deliver its order a month ahead of the agreed delivery date.

The city government had ordered 600,000 vials of the AZD1222 vaccine, which has a 70 percent efficacy rate. It was developed in partnership with scientists from Oxford University.

Treñas said the company’s representative Victor Sepulveda, assured him that they will try to deliver the doses by June 2021.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine, our agreement was that it would be available by the second half of this year, this July. I have been lobbying with AstraZeneca to make it earlier because it’s just a question of additional supply. The representative from AstraZeneca, Victor Sepulveda said that they may seek to have them delivered by June,” Treñas said.

A month’s difference will mean a lot “because we can start inoculating,” Treñas added.

“For me, a month will make a difference because we can start inoculating everyone and it will take time before we fully inoculate the whole population. A one-month advance will really help us a lot.”

Part of the mayor’s call with AstraZeneca was also to secure an additional 100,000 doses for workers who are not residents of the city.

He said that while city residents are a priority, workers living outside of the city are also key to ensuring protection from the virus.

“I want to be able to add for the city, because we would like to cover not only those from the city but also those who are working here in the city. So, for those who are working here inside Iloilo City, we will prepare another 100,000 doses so that everyone would be covered. The first priority are those from the city, because they are the ones paying taxes and everything, but in the total order of things, we will inoculate everyone in the city,” he said.

He added that he was in finalizing a deal with Belgium-based pharmaceutical company Janssen, a subsidiary of American medical company Johnson & Johnson, to secure its version of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccine was recently granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S.’ Food and Drug Administration.

The vaccine, which only requires one dose compared to the prevalent two doses of other vaccines, has an 85 percent efficacy rate.

“We are also finalizing our reservation with Janssen – that is the Johnson & Johnson [vaccine] at the same time, which is a single dose. So when you are injected, you wouldn’t have to go back for the second dose,” the mayor said about the upcoming vaccine order.

 

VACCINATION FOR FRONTLINERS

Treñas also addressed the need to include frontliners in the vaccination process using CoronaVac by Chinese biotech company Sinovac.

The vaccine had been under heavy scrutiny after tests in Brazil in December 2020 showed only 50 percent efficacy.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s announcement on vaccine allocation on Tuesday included hospitals in the city for the allocation of the vaccine for more than 8,000 people in the region.

The hospitals included were Western Visayas Medical Center, St. Paul Hospital Iloilo, West Visayas State University Medical Center, and Iloilo Doctors Hospital.

The Duterte administration had expressed its preference for China-made COVID-19 vaccines including CoronaVac and BBIBP-CorV by pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.

Treñas said that he was seeking inclusion of medical frontliners to be prioritized in Iloilo City’s allocation of the vaccine.

“I asked if it would be possible for medical frontliners to be included, those who signified that they would like to be injected with Sinovac because that is the only one available at this time,” the mayor said.

He said that an administrator of one of the city’s hospitals, who wished for anonymity, informed him that staff who had no direct contact with COVID-positive patients were willing to be vaccinated.

“For them, as long as there would be no direct contact with COVID-positive patients, they have to consider that it will give them sufficient protection. There are also some of them who face COVID-positive patients, they may have to wait for a vaccine with higher efficacy,” he said.

As to the storage of the doses, the mayor said that they had refrigerated vans and cold storage containers ready.

On Tuesday morning, the Iloilo COVID-19 along with the Iloilo City Police Office and Iloilo Airport Police Station conducted a dry-run on the receipt and transport of the vaccines at the Iloilo airport on Cabatuan town.

Treñas also assured a quicker roll out of the vaccines once these arrive in Iloilo City by June or July.

Interacting with Councilors Jojo Javellana, Ely Estante Jr., and Atty. Romel Duron, Mayor Treñas painted an “all hands on deck” scenario where even doctors in the government and private hospitals in the city will be conducting their own vaccination activities, to hasten the vaccination of local residents as well as non-residents who are employed or working in the city.

The city will put up 36 vaccination centers, four each from the nine district health centers.

Treñas stressed that the vaccination is free for all. He also said he is trying to acquire enough doses so that every resident can be covered and the city can enjoy 100 percent protection from the COVID-19 virus.

He said the business sector and even the BPO have vowed to make donations so that additional vaccines can be availed.