BACOLOD City – All residents of this city aged 18 and above are now qualified to avail themselves of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine starting this week.
Em Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF) and coordinator of the COVID-19 Vaccination Council (CoVaC), said this was decided after Bacolod recorded a high death rate in September.
“This is an ongoing risk assessment. If you are in a crowded gathering, potentially with unvaccinated people, you put your mask on and observe social distancing. If you are unvaccinated and eligible for the vaccine, get vaccinated,” Ang said.
Last month, of the total 168 deaths here, 140 were unvaccinated.
The city government has been administering vaccines to frontline healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), adults with comorbidities (A3), frontline personnel in essential sectors, including uniformed personnel, (A4), and indigent population (A5).
With the vaccination now open to the general public, those under Group B, who are other frontline workers and special populations as well as Group C, the remaining population, can now be vaccinated as well.
For easier access to COVID-19 vaccines, the city opened vaccination sites in two shopping malls – SM City Bacolod (SMX Convention Center) and Ayala Malls Capitol Central – for seven days straight from Oct. 11 to 17.
“Both mall-based vaccination centers will no longer have days off this week. We have to vaccinate every qualified Bacolodnon, who is willing to get vaccinated,” Ang said.
Through this, she said, the city can achieve herd immunity. (PNA)
