Marikina targets 10,000 daily vaccinations

MANILA, Philippines — Marikina’s mega vaccination center will be able to inoculate 10,000 residents against the coronavirus daily, Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said yesterday.

Teodoro said the facility, which is located at the Marikina Sports Complex in Barangay Sta. Elena, would have 10 vaccination stations and a monitoring area to observe vaccine recipients who would experience adverse effects.

“We also have an infirmary where we can conduct an initial medical treatment,” he said.

The city government has earmarked P5 million as indemnification fund for those who would experience adverse effects from the vaccines.

“We also have eight medical experts who volunteered – immunologists, virologists, a pulmonologist, public health and infectious disease experts,” Teodoro said.

City hall formed a task force to facilitate an information campaign about the vaccination program.

A survey among the residents showed that most of Marikina’s population want to get vaccinated, Teodoro said.

The city government has allotted P82.7 million for the purchase of the vaccines.

In Valenzuela, Mayor Rex Gatchalian presented the city’s vaccination plan to  Health Secretary Francisco Duque during the visit of the National Task Force against COVID-19 yesterday.

Gatchalian said the local government aims to inoculate 320,000 residents using the 640,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses they initially ordered.

There will be 17 vaccination sites to be manned by 76 teams, he said.

City hall targets to inoculate 3,080 residents per day. The vaccination of all beneficiaries may be done in 116 days, Gatchalian added. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab