Cebu malls, hotels to help in gov’t vaccination program
CEBU CITY—At least 20 private establishments in Cebu, including hospitals, malls and hotels, have agreed to provide venues to speed up and make the government’s public vaccination rollout comfortable.
The partnership scheme will be piloted in Cebu but may expand to other regions, said Dr. Jaime Bernadas, director of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7).
“Vaccinating 70 percent or 100 percent of the total population is a difficult task. We (in government) can’t do it alone. We need the help of the private sector,” he said.
The partnership, set up under the Project Balik Buhay (PBB), was sealed in a memorandum of agreement (MOA) recently signed between the private sector and the government through the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (Opav) and would be implemented as soon as vaccines are available for the general population.
Secretary Michael Dino of the Opav said the MOA would allow malls and hotels to provide venues for the public vaccination, with private hospitals agreeing to provide the staff needed for the inoculation process.
Free venues
Businessman Edmund Liu, who chairs the PBB, said the vaccination sites will be activated once the government starts inoculating those under Priority Code A3, or persons with comorbidities.
“We in the private sector have been tasked to support, [however] we can, the efforts of the national government. We are willing to donate the use of private properties at no cost to the government, at no cost to the Cebuanos—all shouldered by the private sector,” he said.
Liu said the vaccines would be given with a contact number that patient could call in case they experience adverse effects of the vaccines.
Central Visayas has so far received 110,760 vaccines from the national government intended for front-line health workers. Of the number, 80,760 are from Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and 30,000 came from British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca.
After health-care workers, those next in line to receive the Sinovac or AstraZeneca vaccines are senior citizens, said Bernadas.
But those in this category who do not want to be inoculated with either the Sinovac or the AstraZeneca vaccine will be the last to be inoculated if they change their minds, he said.
“They will have to wait their turn after everybody else is vaccinated,” Bernadas said.
We can’t do it alone. We need the help of the private sector
Jaime Bernadas DOH-7 director
Partners
The initial vaccination partners of PBB are the Chong Hua Hospitals in Metro Cebu, Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital, Visayas Community Medical Center, Mendero Medical Center, University of Cebu Medical Center, ARC Hospitals, SM Malls, Robinsons Land Corp., Toyota Team Cebu, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., Visayan Electric, Archdiocese of Cebu, Sacred Heart School, and University of San Carlos.
Also included are Cebu Velez General Hospital, Perpetual Succour Hospital, St. Vincent General Hospital, University of the Philippines Medical Alumni Society, LH Foundation Inc. and Bayanihan Cebu.