Bacolod City will hold a dry-run of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccination at the Barangay Villamonte Gym on Feb. 5 ahead of the arrival of the vaccines in the coming months.
The simulation exercises will be led by the City Health Office (CHO) upon the instructions of Mayor Evelio Leonardia, who chairs the Bacolod Covid-19 Vaccination (CoVac) Council.
“These activities will test the systems and strategies of the city’s vaccination program,” city administrator Em Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operations Center Task Force and coordinator of the CoVac Council, said on Tuesday.
The dry-run will include the pick-up and transport of vaccines from the central cold storage facility and other supplies to designated vaccination areas as well as the actual inoculation and monitoring for 30-45 minutes after the person is vaccinated to see if there are any adverse effects.
The final activity will be the disinfection of the venues and subsequent disposal of infectious wastes.
The CHO staff will be supported by personnel of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office during the simulation.
In its proposal, the CoVac Council is planning to set up five mega vaccination centers and 20 community vaccination centers, including private and public schools.
At least 10 teams will be deployed in each vaccination center. Each team will be comprised of a vaccinator, a verifier, a recorder, and an assistant.
The city’s vaccination plan also includes other aspects such as information dissemination to encourage more people to get vaccinated, the registration of recipients according to the priority sequence set by the Department of Health (DOH), and the creation of vaccination teams and training of vaccinators.
Bacolod, which has a budget of PHP300 million for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, is targeting to inoculate some 80 percent, or 491,198 individuals out of the 613,997 projected population in 2020.
The targeted population based on DOH guidelines will be inoculated for free, being the first step in the city government’s economic recovery program.
Bacolod has secured 650,000 doses from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Philippines Inc. set to be delivered starting July and is also expected to receive more vaccines from the national government. (PNA)
