San Juan posts 23,000 vaccine registrants

MANILA, Philippines — San Juan City recorded the highest number of residents who signed up for the vaccination program among Metro Manila cities, with over 23,000 registrants, Mayor Francis Zamora said yesterday.

Zamora said the local government was able to increase the number of registrants through house-to-house visits, online information drive and media briefings.

As of yesterday, the city has recorded 23,202 registrants. Of the figure, 3,708 are health workers and 19,494 are residents.

The number, according to the local government, represents about 19 percent of the city’s total population.

“We congratulate the city for having registrants of 19 percent of the city’s population, the highest in the National Capital Region. This is a viable vaccination plan. San Juan is ready, kulang na lang po ang bakuna,” Aleli Sudiacal, director of the Department of Health Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, said during the CODE team visit to the city yesterday.

San Juan targets to vaccinate about 85,000 residents.

Zamora asked the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to allow him to be the first vaccine recipient in the city to boost the residents’ confidence in the vaccines.

Valenzuela ready  for vaccine rollout

In Valenzuela, health workers are ready to get inoculated if there are extra vaccines available from the first batch of vaccines for COVID-19 hospitals, according to Mayor Rex Gatchalian.

During the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum yesterday, Gatchalian said health workers are prepared for the vaccination should there be extra vaccines available once the first batch of 117,000 Pfizer-BioNTech from the COVAX facility arrives.

Gatchalian met yesterday with hospital representatives to finalize the list of medical personnel to be prioritized in the city’s vaccine rollout.

The first tranche of vaccines to arrive will be used to inoculate workers in COVID-19 referral hospitals such as the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City and Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan.

“If there are extra vaccines, these may be delivered to our medical frontliners,” Gatchalian said.

Valenzuela has one hospital run by the Department of Health and four private hospitals.

The city government aims to inoculate 320,000 residents using 640,000 AstraZeneca vaccines set to arrive in the third quarter of the year. –  Marc Jayson Cayabyab