Legazpi IATF identifies 7 vax sites

By Mar S. Arguelles

THE Legazpi City Interagency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) has announced on Tuesday, Feb. 16, that it has identified at least seven medical facilities to be used as Covid-19 inoculation centers once the much-awaited vaccines arrive.

Mayor Noel Rosal said the city’s IATF has entered into an agreement with the Estevez Memorial Hospital, University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital, Ago Medical Educational Center, Albay Doctors, Legazpi City Hospital, and the Legazpi City Convention Center, while negotiations are still being finalized with the Tanchuling Hospital.

Rosal said these facilities were selected as vaccination sites because of the proximity and the spacious areas they offer given the health protocols to be observed by thousands of residents expected to be vaccinated.

He said negotiation is being finalized with a US-India based pharmaceutical firm, the manufacturer of Novavax vaccine, for 150,000 doses of vaccines.

Rosal, in an earlier interview, said the city government had earmarked a P200-million fund for the purchase of the vaccines to inoculate 130,000 city residents.

He said once the negotiations are firmed up, the Sangguniang Panglungsod would issue an authority for the chief executive to enter and sign an agreement to purchase the vaccines.

“It’s all system go for the city vaccination program,” Rosal said.

The city government has already rented a cold storage facility that can store the vaccines once they arrive. It has partnered with the Glacier Liberty Refrigeration Services Corp. to use its cold storage facility in Barangay Bonot, Legazpi City.

The refrigeration units can store 10 million doses of vaccines at a maximum cold temperature of minus 25 degrees Celcius.

Rosal said except for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine that requires a minus 70 degrees Celsius temparature, all other vaccine brands could be stored in the local cold storage facility.

Meanwhile, Jesus Chito Baldo, Legazpi City’s QR Code program director, said the IATF would start conducting master listing of residents for the upcoming mass vaccination procedure in the city’s 70 villages.