‘Booster’ drive gets big boost

CEBU, Philippines —  Booster shots for Metro Cebu are expected to increase as more pharmacies have signified their interest to participate in the Resbakuna sa Botika.

The pilot run of “Resbakuna sa Botika” took place at the Rose Pharmacy in JY Square here last February 2 with key officials of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and the National Task Force-Covid-19, including Secretaries Carlito Galvez and Vince Dizon, in attendance.

Galvez, in an interview, said making the COVID-19 vaccines more accessible to the people is the way forward.

Galvez noted that there are people who do not want to go to vaccination sites. Thus, with many pharmacies in the country, even in barangays, the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is expected to get a boost.

After the pilot run, a meeting with the pharmacies facilitated by the Office of the Presidential Assistant to the Visayas was held at the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center at Oakridge in Mandaue.

Among the pharmacies represented were Rose, Watsons, Mercury, 360, Bing, La Nueva, July, and Every Care.

Aside from that, there were also two organizations that joined the meeting such as the Drugstore Association of the Philippines-Cebu chapter and the Philippine Pharmaceutical Association of Cebu chapter.

Instead of implementing the program independently, it was agreed that it would be integrated with the existing vaccination in the local government units. With this, the rollout will be faster as it becomes a shared responsibility.

The Department of Health (DOH) will be providing manpower for vaccinators, LGUs will be providing data management personnel, and pharmacies will be providing augmentation team.

According to VVOC spokesperson, Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, processes and protocols are being discussed, and once fine-tuned, the vaccination in pharmacies in Metro Cebu areas will already be a go.

After Metro Cebu, and once the system has already been refined, it will be cascaded to other parts in Central Visayas.

Pharmacies involved will be offering booster shots.

“So that means yung ating booster shots na mababa ang percentage, that can now increase, especially now that our drugstores and pharmacists are joining us in this endeavor,” said Loreche.

Transition

Meanwhile, Partido Repoma Senatorial candidate Dr. Minguita Padilla, who was among the first five persons to be vaccinated in the country in March 2021, said that doctors are now are seeing COVID-19 variant Omicron as a transition into an endemic state.

“We should stop judging our situation based on the number of cases but let us use the number of hospitalization as the basis just like many countries are doing,” said Padilla in a press conference.

She was in Cebu as part of her nationwide campaign trail talking with over 50 mayors in Cebu as well as barangay captains here. She presented her 12-point agenda which includes proper implementation of the Universal Health Care law, giving importance of organ donation, PhilHealth reform, taking care of the healthcare workers and mental health especially among young people, food security, giving more teeth against fake news, among others.

Padilla, the founder and CEO of Eye Bank Foundation of the Philippines for more than 20 years, said that if the country continues vaccinating, then COVID-19 will become an endemic disease just like flu or colds.

“So, it’s not anymore going to affect our lives so much or damage our lives but it’s there and we learn to live with it, that’s where we believe we are going. We are optimistic, this is a cautious optimism,” said Padilla, an eye surgeon for more than 30 years.

Padilla recalled that on the early onset of the pandemic, most doctors were not satistified of the government’s response because there was no sense of urgency.

“Feeling namin masyadong kampante sabi ni Secretary Duque we have 2,000 test kits okay na yun, tapos he said let’s just not close our borders to China baka masaktan sila. There was a lack of realization on the gravity of the pandemic at that time and there was also a lot of people took advantage of the pandemic even from government and the investigation will show you that,” she said.

She added that much is to be desired and she thinks the government could have gotten the vaccines sooner as well and the testing policies were confusing and she thinks there was also some public personal interest of certain groups that came before public welfare.

“But now with the vaccination, I am happy because the push is correct. We need to vaccinate as many and as fast as possible. It’s the only way for us to get out this pandemic sooner than later. I am in favor of what’s happening now the push, we have to vaccinate faster and more especially now we have a lot of vaccine,” the senatorial aspirant said.

She added as to there should be somebody that should be held accountable on the pandemic anomalies.

Padilla said: “I do not have the evidence with me but if there is an evidence of graft and corruption and plunder then charges should be filed and the cases should proceed accordingly because we need to restore trust in government. We need to see that the people who have done something that there is evidence should be held accountable hindi yung wala nobody gets held accountable that is why people lost trust in government”.

Padilla also said she is in favor of inoculating kids 5-11 years old against COVID-19 as this would help open the economy and help children go back to school.

“I know that it is a sensitive issue as some parents are afraid but the same thing happened when we first started. I believed this is being studied and the dosage for children is much less than the adults. If I have a child at that age, I will do it unless there is a contraindication,” said Padilla.  – Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon, JMD (FREEMAN)