Iloilo City to provide COVID vaccines to MIGEDC areas

Iloilo City will extend help to municipalities in the Metro Iloilo Guimaras Economic Development Council (MIGEDC) by providing them with COVID-19 vaccines purchased by the city government.

In a virtual press conference on Thursday, Iloilo City COVID-19 Team Chairperson Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna announced that the city government will provide vaccines to its neighboring towns.

The city government aims to distribute 2,000 doses of AstraZeneca to each town in the MIGEDC area.

“We will provide them COVID-19 vaccines ang napurchase nga vaccines sang city government. We are coordinating with them,” Fortuna said.

MIGEDC is composed of the towns of Oton, Leganes, Pavia, San Miguel, Sta. Barbara, and Cabatuan in Iloilo and Guimaras province.

According to Jeck Conlu, spokesperson of the Iloilo City COVID-19 Team and head of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO), the city aims to boost the inoculation drive in MIGEDC as most workers and tenants in Iloilo City are residents of these areas.

“We are targeting ang mga areas didto sa MIGEDC kay kalabanan diri nga nagatrabaho sa syudad halin sa mga areas nga ina,” he said.

Aside from MIGEDC area, the city government will also give COVID-19 vaccines to city hospitals.

Initially, Fortuna said that they will be giving out 100 doses per hospital.

City hospitals may request for additional doses from the city government once the vaccines have been administered.

Iloilo City has already vaccinated more than half of its target population and has been the fastest local government unit (LGUs) in terms of inoculation in the entire Western Visayas.

As of October 5, 2021, around 50.45 percent or 264,480 Ilonggos are already fully protected against COVID-19, based on the data from the City Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (CESU).

Meanwhile, 62.65 percent equivalent to 328,899 individuals have already received their first dose of the vaccine. (ERS)