Calamba City inoculation on target

Calamba City Mayor Justin Chipeco announced that his city is still on track on its mass-vaccination program amid the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

In an exclusive interview with Daily Tribune’s “Straight Talk,” the Calamba local chief executive stressed that while some parts of the country are facing problems in their inoculation drive, the local government has been relentless on its Calam-Bakuna Program.

However, the mayor stressed that their Covid-19 vaccination program will still depend on the number of vaccines that the city gets from the national government.

Chipeco noted that the 4,000 who received Covid-19 jabs were health workers, senior citizens and those who have comorbidities.

“One of our vaccination sites is the Calamba Doctor’s Hospital and also we have partnered with SM, who opened their malls as vaccination facility. Three thousand plus have been inoculated and it’s still an ongoing thing. As we receive supplies, we just continue vaccinating as many people as we can,” Chipeco said.

“We have ordered more vaccine which have yet to come. The commitment given to us was third quarter this year. I’m hopeful. The money is there but the supply is lacking,” he added.

The mayor also disclosed that so far, Calamba City has around 860 active Covid-19 cases.

“We’re managing, so that it doesn’t go as high as the cases in Metro Manila. We have a quarantine facility, around 500 people can go there,” Chipeco said.

“We have partnered with the Department of Public Works and Highways, we have this regional center that the Department of Health manages, and the city is also helping. I think there are around 300 to 400 people now in the quarantine facility, which really helped a lot in isolating people in the area,” he added.

The local government of Calamba City is on track with its inoculation drive.

Chipeco noted that one of the reasons Covid-19 cases escalated in the city is because Calamba is known to be one of the major export manufacturing zones in the country.

“My suggestion to the Interagency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Department of Health is that, if possible, our factory workers get prioritized in the inoculation as well, because factories are the breeding ground of our cases here,” Chipeco said.

“I understand that they keep on telling me that, of course, we have to prioritize. I do not argue with that, it is just that when the vaccines come in regularly that we can start inoculating these people,” he added.