Gov’t expands COVID-19 vax drive in pharmacies to Cebu City –NTF

The Cebu City government on Wednesday launched its first “Resbakuna sa mga Botika” COVID-19 vaccination drive in pharmacies to get more individuals inoculated against the viral disease, the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said.

The program was expanded to the city’s Rose Pharmacy, on top of the initial seven pharmacies and private clinics in Metro Manila that have participated in the initiative since January 20.

The NTF said they also included drugstores in Baguio City as part of the national government’s efforts to further expand the national vaccination program in the country.

NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the establishment of this program is the “way forward' in devolving the vaccination program to the local government units (LGUs) and, in the future, commercialization of the COVID-19 jabs.

“Darating ang araw na ‘pag commercialized na ang vaccine, [sila’y] pupunta na sa mga pharmacies katulad ng Rose Pharmacy at ‘yung ibang pharmacies [katulad ng] Watsons [at] Mercury Drug,” he said.

(The day will come when the vaccine will be commercialized, people will go to pharmacies like Rose Pharmacy and other more pharmacies to avail it.)

“From a national-centered policy, kailangan ay ‘yung correlation at ‘yung community response ang palakasin natin. We are very happy and confident na Cebu can do it kasi kayo ang mga nauna,” the vaccine czar added.

(From a national-centered policy, we need to strengthen the correlation and the community response. We are very happy and confident that Cebu can do it because they are among the firsts in this program.)

Meanwhile, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama thanked the national government for helping the city strengthen its pandemic response and mitigation measures, as well as scale up its vaccine rollout.

“I am very thankful on behalf of the city government as we’ve been wanting that we all liberate the city of Cebu from the pandemic. And the way to liberation is vaccination,” he said.

The Department of Health (DOH) said on Saturday it is targeting to expand the “Resbakuna sa mga Botika” vaccination drive across the country come mid-February.

Galvez noted the government is targeting to administer booster doses to at least 72 million Filipinos this year, giving assurance that there is enough vaccine supplies in the country’s inventory.

About 90 million people are also eyed to be fully vaccinated by the second quarter of this year.

Based on DOH's national COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, 60,466,380 individuals have already received their first dose against COVID-19 as of Tuesday.

Of this number, 59,120,367 have completed their doses, while 7,576,859 have received their booster shots after reaching the three to six month requirement.

The COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 years old will be rolled out starting Friday, February 4 in six vaccination sites.

The Philippines reported on Wednesday 7,661 additional COVID-19 infections, increasing the total caseload to 3,577,298.—AOL, GMA News