San Juan opens 2nd jab site, offers discounts to vaccines

MANILA, Philippines — The city government of San Juan has opened a second vaccination center at Cinemas 1 and 2 of Theater Mall in the Greenhills Shopping Center, which can take up to 1,500 vaccinees a day.

This is in addition to the FilOil Flying V Center, with a capacity of 2,000 vaccinees a day.

Mayor Francis Zamora held a dry run at Theater Mall last week, in anticipation of the start of vaccination for the A4 category.

“Once the IATF announces that we can start already with A4, we will vaccinate immediately our Muslim brothers and sisters who work in and do business in Greenhills along with our other work force in the area and in the city,” he said, referring to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Zamora issued Executive Order 81 to encourage employees of business establishments in San Juan to get vaccinated, even though they are not residents of the city.

He also issued EO 82 to encourage businesses in San Juan City allowed to operate under general community quarantine to provide incentives or discounts to customers who present their vaccination cards. Participating establishments will get a Vaccine Incentive Program sticker.

16 hurt in bus-ambulance crash

Sixteen persons were injured after a passenger bus and an ambulance figured in an accident along EDSA in Mandaluyong City on Friday night.

City police chief Col. Gauvin Mel Unos said the mishap occurred along the southbound lane of EDSA-Shaw Boulevard tunnel in Barangay Highway Hills at around 8 p.m.

Quoting a police report, Unos said the ambulance entered the busway on the leftmost lane of EDSA when it was hit by a Jell Transit bus.

The bus swerved to the left and rammed a concrete post of the Metro Rail Transit before it rested on the center island. Meanwhile, the ambulance swerved back to the middle of the major thoroughfare.

Several steel bollards were also destroyed in the accident.

Bus driver Albert Lappay, 38, and 14 of his passengers as well as the driver of the ambulance, Jonil Pepito, 24, sustained injuries.

Rescuers brought the victims to the Mandaluyong City Medical Center for medical treatment.

Edison Nebrija, traffic chief of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, said while ambulances can use the busway, drivers should take extra precautions.