Bacolod City will soon launch a booster drive against COVID-19, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Monday, July 11.
The response to the call for booster shots has not been that much, there is a need to encourage more to go for it, Benitez said at a press conference at the Bacolod City Government Center.
“We will have to learn to live with Covid, because it will not disappear it will always be there”, Benitez also said.
Noting the slight increase in COVID-19 cases in Bacolod, the mayor said the Public Information Office will have to intensify the “educational process for us to treat ourselves”.
There were 19 COVID-19 cases in Bacolod on Sunday, of which 13 were on home quarantine, Benitez said.
“The idea is to be able to educate our citizenry on how to take care of themselves… so we can learn how to live with the virus”, he said.
The current COVID-19 variant hitting the city is less dangerous, he noted.
Benitez has designated the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO) to spearhead the COVID-19 response of the city government.
He is also looking at Dr. Anna Maria Laarni Pornan, DRRMO head, to lead the city’s Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases because she is the person on the ground, Benitez said.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran previously headed the city’s IATF.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education will provide the guidelines for face-to-face classes and is leaving it to the school heads to decide on the modes they will adopt, Benitez said.*