
Negros Occidental town and city mayors need not worry about COVID-19 vaccines for their constituents, the national government has already assured that it will provide them, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said today, February 15.
Lacson said in the many meetings he has attended with Secretary Carlito Galvez, the country’s COVID-19 vaccine czar, he has assured that it is the national government’s obligation to vaccinate every Filipino.
The 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that he requested covers everyone in Negros Occidental, except those who belong to the age group from 18 years old and below, Lacson said.
The mayors should not worry about buying the vaccines, they should let the national government take care of that, he said.
The mayors should instead focus on registering their constituents for vaccination and on convincing them of the importance of being vaccinated, Lacson said.
The mass vaccination will start with frontliners, followed by indigent senior citizens, the governor said.
The governor said he is ready to be vaccinated since Pope Francis has already done so.
The governor said he does not know when the national government COVID-19 vaccines and the ones the provincial government ordered will arrive.
“As far as the 100,000 doses we ordered, AstraZeneca said next month they will be announcing the schedule of delivery,” Lacson said.
Lacson said he welcomes the bills filed in Congress that will allow local governments to pay in advance for the vaccines they ordered.
The procurement law does not allow us to give an advance of more than 50 percent, he said.
Negros Occidental COVID-19 active cases on Sunday dropped to 76, the Provincial Incident Management Team reported.
Eight LGUs – Binalbagan, Candoni, Cauayan, Salvador Benedicto, Himamaylan City, La Castellana, Murcia and Pulupandan had no active COVID-19 cases as of Sunday, the PIMT also reported.
San Carlos City has the highest number of active cases in Negros Occidental at 15.
Lacson said San Carlos is expecting 14 patients to be COVID-free this week, “we are very happy with what is happening.”
However, Lacson said he could not say that Negros Occidental has hit its COVID-19 peak.*