‘VACCINES FOR ALL’: City Hall assures free COVID-19 vaccines to workers from other provinces

No workers will be left behind in the city’s COVID-19 vaccination program as the Iloilo City government assured that vaccines will be purchased for workers in the city who are from other provinces.

In partnership with the private sector, Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city has placed advance reservations for additional 200,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

The vaccines will be given to workers employed in Iloilo City and residents of neighboring municipalities and provinces.

“We were still discussing process of vaccination, we have purchased 600,000 doses and we have now reserved another 200,000 because we are looking at workers coming from different municipalities who are working in Iloilo City together with our partnership with the private sector,” the mayor said during the turn-over ceremony of handwashing facilities at the Iloilo City Hall on Tuesday, January 18, 2021.

Treñas revealed that one businessman already made an initial donation of PHP500,000 which was deposited in the city’s trust fund.

“I would like to announce, there was already a businessman who has deposited with the trust bank PHP500,000 for his assistance for the purchase of vaccines,” he said.

With the vaccination of its workers and the strong public and private partnership, the mayor said the city targets to be one of the first cities in the metro to recover from the pandemic.

“We will be giving the vaccines free not only to Iloilo City residents but also to all workers working inside Iloilo City, we want to do this so we will be among the first cities to recover fast from COVID-19,” he added.

Recently, Iloilo City has signed the multilateral agreement for the advance purchase of AstraZeneca vaccines with a budget of PHP200-million for the 600,000 doses of the vaccines enough to vaccinate about 300,000 residents in the metro. (ERS)