Isko checks Manila’s 19th vaccination facility

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Mayor Isko Moreno inspected on Friday the Manila Prince Hotel, which was designated the city’s 19th vaccination facility.

The city government has also been conducting home service vaccinations for bedridden residents.

With this development, Moreno highlighted the need to speed up the mass vaccination against COVID-19.

“Once you have vaccines, you have to deploy them fast. Vaccination should be faster than infection,” Moreno said.

City engineer Armand Andres, city architect Pepito Balmores and hotel liaison officer Marvin Kim Tan were also present during the site inspection.

Moreno reiterated that the city government continues to work with the national government in its mass vaccination efforts.

As of Thursday, the city’s health department and its six district hospitals have deployed a total of 151,659 vaccine doses for the ongoing inoculation of A1, A2 and A3 priority groups.

So far, the vaccines allocated to Manila by the national government come from the COVAX Facility (AstraZeneca and Pfizer), the Chinese government (Sinovac) and Sputnik V, made by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.

The city government is also waiting for 800,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

In February, Moreno authorized the release of P38.4 million as 20 percent advance payment for the AstraZeneca vaccines, which are expected to arrive either by June or September.