Security for 600K Sinovac jabs assured
Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro on Sunday assured security for the 600,000 doses of China-made Sinovac vaccine as the five-hectare storage facility for the vaccines is located in the city.
In a radio interview, Teodoro said that the services of the city government will be given, from ensuring the immediate transfer of the Sinovac vaccines from Villamor Airbase in Pasay City to the storage facility in Marikina City and until the delivery of the vaccines to the different hospitals.
“We have an advance command post in the area to ensure that there will be a smooth traffic management and we will provide 24-hour security. We are not only prepared for the smooth arrival and storage of the vaccines, most importantly in the start of the vaccination program on Monday and in the coming days, starting this week,” he said.
Teodoro added that the city government will also provide security once the national government starts the distribution of the vaccines in the various vaccination centers.
We have an advance command post in the area to ensure that there will be a smooth traffic management and we will provide 24-hour security.
“Priority are the Covid referral hospital and after that will be the public and private hospitals. The hierarchy in the priority list has been finalized, from big hospitals down to the small hospitals in both public and private hospitals. The idea really is to vaccinate our frontliners, particularly those in the health care institutions,” he added.
According to Teodoro, the storage facility in Marikina is strategically located to ensure the immediate distribution of the vaccines and to start the rollout.
“The cold storage facility is located in the major road connecting to our highway system wherein the traffic will be managed to ensure that delivery period for rollout is achieved. We are taking into consideration the time element in the distribution of the vaccines,” he said.
Teodoro said that among the priority hospitals for the rollout include Philippine General Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines and V. Luna Medical Center.
“After that, the delivery of the vaccines will continue in Pasig, Marikina, the following day, Tuesday, and the succeeding days. We have the level 3, level 2 and level hospitals in the rollout,” according to Teodoro.
He said on Saturday night, he met with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and Testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon to finalize the plan for the delivery and distribution of the Sinovac vaccines.
On the other hand, Teodoro admitted that only 30 percent of the health workers in Marikina City are willing to be vaccinated with Sinovac vaccines, while 70 percent said they will wait for the next available vaccine.