ROXAS City – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Capiz urged all local government units (LGUs), including the city government here, to allot funds for the procurement of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines when these become available.
Capiz has a total of 16 municipalities. Roxas City is its capital.
The Provincial Board recently passed Resolution No. 383-2020 requesting the 16 municipalities and the city of Roxas to earmark a portion of their 2021 budget for the vaccines “to be used by their constituents.”
Vice Gov. James “Mitang” Magbanua, the SP presiding officer, said earmarking a budget for the COVID-9 vaccine must be a priority.
The resolution was sponsored by SP member Esteban Jose Conteras, a medical doctor.
The COVID-19 vaccine may be quite expensive and ordinary Capiznons may not be able to afford it, the SP members explained.
“Ini ang rason nga kinahanglan sang mga LGUs nga makapain sang pundo,” said Magbanua.
World-leading United States-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its partner, the German company, BioNTech, last week announced preliminary results that suggested their vaccine was more than 90 percent effective.
In July, Pfizer and BioNTech initiated a late-stage clinical trial on a COVID-19 vaccine. Half of the people got the vaccine, while the other half got a placebo of salt water. The companies then waited for people to get sick to determine if the vaccine offered any protection.
So far, 94 participants out of nearly 44,000 have gotten sick with COVID-19. An independent board of experts looked at how many of those people got the vaccine, and how many got the placebo. That early analysis suggests the vaccine is over 90 percent effective.
Pfizer’s chief executive has said that it could have 30 to 40 million doses of the vaccine before the end of the year, enough for 15 to 20 million people to get an initial shot and a booster three weeks later./PN
