The City of Makati has started the door-to-door delivery of medical supplies to residents while also extending financial assistance and food packs to persons with disabilities, Mayor Abigail Binay said on Monday.
The city chief executive said the direct delivery of medicines, previously enjoyed only by senior citizens aged 70 and older and bedridden residents, aims to encourage residents to stay home and prevent the possible transmission of coronavirus disease.
Senior citizens, pregnant women, and individuals with weak immune system are considered at high risk for infection.
“We continue to think up ways to make essential needs accessible to Makatizens without them leaving the safety of their homes,” said Binay, adding that the modified distribution scheme will be in effect throughout the enhanced community quarantine.
On the mayor’s orders, some 13,181 registered PWD residents of Makati will be receiving P1,000-cash assistance and food packs from the city government beginning today, March 30. Other sectors that have received financial aid and food packs from the city include over 2,000 solo parents and over 6,800 tricycle and jeepney drivers.
“As I have said earlier, we are giving priority to the more vulnerable sectors who would most likely feel the brunt of the limited mobility and loss of livelihood arising from our current situation,” Mayor Binay said.
Under the modified distribution scheme for free medicines, non-senior citizens who have medical prescriptions from barangay health centers only need to give the list of medicines to Makati Action Center (MAC) personnel in health centers and their medicines will be delivered to their residence.
Meanwhile, senior citizens who receive medicines every month should give their medical prescriptions to MAC personnel who will then deliver three months’ supply of their maintenance medication to their homes.
Earlier, Binay ordered the distribution of around P11.9 million in financial assistance to tricycle, jeepney, and pedicab drivers living in Makati.
The mayor said the initial amount of P2,000 for each recipient is meant to help the drivers and their families get through the first two weeks of the enhanced community quarantine period.
The city government also started distributing food packs to students and solo parents, who also received P1,000 financial aid, to address the nutritional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic