The City of Taguig has begun administering its first COVID-19 vaccines, kicking off its 2021 Recovery Program that aims to inoculate one million residents.
Health care workers were among the first batch of residents who received the CoronaVac vaccines at the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital, the first local government-run hospital to be given the vaccine.
Mayor Lino Edgardo Cayetano thanked the national government and the members of its COVID-19 task force for giving the city 300 doses of vaccines from China-based Sinovac.
“We expect a second shipment soon primarily for our healthcare workers as they are the ones on the frontlines of this battle. We also thank the Chinese government and the World Health Organization and its Covax facility for the initial supply of vaccines with a goal of vaccinating all our health workers within the first quarter of 2021,” said Cayetano.
The city government is rolling out a P13.5-billion budget this year, including the P1-billion fund intended for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines to protect its residents from the deadly disease.
Cayetano says the local government is committed to have vaccines available for its one million citizens and is working closely with the national government and various vaccine suppliers.
“Together with the national government supply, we are complementing this with the local government unit’s orders so we have a good portfolio of vaccines available to our citizens,” he said.
“The worldwide supply shortage makes this challenging but as we wait for the bulk of vaccines to arrive, we believe we can continue Taguig’s road to zero campaign and to stop the spread of the virus in our community.”
Taguig remains to be one of the cities with the lowest number of active cases with nine cases per 100,000 population and has the lowest case fatality rate in Metro Manila at 1.51 percent.
“While we wait for more vaccines to arrive, let us continue to be vigilant, wear masks, wash hands regularly and keep our distance. Let us work together to keep our community and our families safe and healthy,” said Cayetano.