Iloilo City ready for arrival of COVID-19 vaccines

With roughly four months before the expected arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, Mayor Jerry Treñas assured that the city is ready to inoculate residents as soon as the vaccines are available.

During the conduct of the city’s second simulation exercise (SIMEX) on Wednesday, Treñas said the city has been preparing to ensure that it will be ready anytime the vaccines arrive.

“We are doing everything to make sure na handa kita once mag-abot ang vaccines kag indi kita magtalang-talang. We are ready,” he said in a media interview on Wednesday at the Ateneo de Iloilo – Santa Maria Catholic School which was the site of the second SIMEX.

Around 100 volunteers composed of traffic and sanitation personnel and members of the Liga ng Barangay in Mandurriao district participated in the exercise.

The participants were inoculated with pneumonia and flu vaccines according to Jeck Conlu, spokesperson of the City COVID-19 Team.

The vaccination process was divided into five stages – registration area, waiting and counselling area, screening and assessment area, vaccination area, and monitoring area.

Compared to the first simulation exercise, Conlu said that the vaccination process is now more organized and systematic. However, he noted that the crowd must be controlled to prevent overcrowding.

“Mas organized and systematic nakit-an naton mas manami na ang sistema and nalipay kita hopefully wala na sang dalagko nga changes karon. For now, manami ang flow sang aton vaccination process, anytime mag-abot, ready na ang city para sa vaccines,” he said.

The running time of the vaccination process was also significantly trimmed down to 10 minutes as pre-registration was done in city barangays.

According to the mayor, the vaccination process can be completed in ten minutes once the participants have already pre-registered and secured QR codes.

“Kadasig, nagdalagan lang 10 minutes kon pre-registered kana, kon wala ka pre-registration madugayan ka sa registration area,” he explained.

Treñas said the city government is ironing out the pre-registration of residents in the barangays to ensure faster and smoother flow of the vaccination process.

Under the city’s vaccination plan, vaccination areas were identified per district where each vaccination area will have four designated vaccination sites.

The vaccination will not be simultaneous and may last for three to four days per district as the city has to ensure that all the health protocols are still in place.

Among the vaccination centers that have been identified by the city government include schools and universities particularly Ateneo de Iloilo – Santa Maria Catholic School, John B. Lacson Maritime Foundation University, Central Philippine University (CPU), Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) and University of San Agustin.

The mayor added that the hospitals in the metro will also serve as the vaccination sites of the city for the medical frontliners and their immediate family and other hospital workers.

Currently, the city is ramping up its vaccination campaign to encourage more residents to get vaccinated.

“Let us just continue to communicate nga kinahanglan naton ma- immunize ang pumuluyo so that we can achieve the herd immunity.  Vaccination is really voluntary but sige-sigehon ta lang ni until such time nga mabaton sang pumuluyo,” he said.

Meanwhile, the city government is still contemplating on the possible holding of another simulation exercise as it will depend on the results of the post-evaluation of the second simulation exercise. (ERS)