The Bacolod City government is preparing a multi-million peso fund for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, Mayor Evelio Leonardia said today, December 27.
Leonardia said he has been meeting with his Finance Committee and they are finalizing the amount to be allocated.
“We are very confident we have the funds,” the mayor said.
“We will see to it that any and all resources that we have, we can realign, we can augment, including our savings” will be used for the purchase of the vaccines, he said.
Leonardia said providing COVID-19 vaccines for the people of Bacolod will be the highest priority of his administration in 2021.
Leonardia, president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, on December 23 created a Committee on Vaccine Availment headed by Iloilo Mayor Jerry Treñas to ensure access COVID-19 vaccines for the 145 cities of the country.
The committee is set to meet with vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez and representatives of pharmaceutical companies in early January to discuss availment of the vaccines as soon as possible, he said.
”We need to strategize our efforts to ensure that our constituents have early access to quality and affordable vaccines, but we need to gather as much information as possible to guide our decisions,” Leonardia said.
“This is, after all, a top priority for all of us,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health reported that Bacolod City has no new COVID-19 cases, while Negros Occidental has five, today, December 27.
Bacolod City had 82 active COVID-19 cases and Negros Occidental has 387, it added.
The DOH said Bacolod City has had 5,588 COVID-19 cases and 173 deaths, while Negros Occidental has had 6,340 and 146 deaths.*