THE business sector is encouraging local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental including Bacolod City to unveil their respective roadmap for mass vaccination against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a business leader said.
Frank Carbon, chief executive officer of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), said the roadmap is a high-level communication paper that details the strategy and why’s of the vaccination program.
It will also show the goals and milestones of the program, Carbon said.
“They [LGUs] might have [a roadmap] but they have to unveil and communicate it to the public,” he added.
Underscoring the importance of showing the LGUs' mass vaccination roadmap, the business leader said it will allay fears of infection and encourage movement and increase the confidence of businessmen to reopen.
“It will discourage profiteers to hoard goods and create artificial shortages and mitigate soaring food prices,” he added.
Following the arrival of the first batch of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac, a vaccine produced by China-based pharmaceutical Sinovac Biotech on February 28, the national government has begun rolling out the vaccines.
Two hospitals in Bacolod City, the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital and Riverside Medical Center, are expected to get an allocation from these Sinovac vaccines for their medical frontliners.
It can be recalled that the City Government of Bacolod and Provincial Government of Negros Occidental earlier entered separate contracts with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Philippines Inc. for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.
Bacolod City allotted an initial fund of P300 million to purchase inoculate some 80 percent, or 491,198 individuals out of the 613,997 projected population in 2020.
Negros Occidental had set aside P30 million for the procurement of vaccines mainly for medical frontliners.
The amount is only good for about 100,000 doses so the province requested for three million doses from the national government to cover its balance equivalent to about 1.5 million population.
The city and provincial governments have already made advance payments, at 20 percent, for their respective Covid-19 orders which are expected to arrive by July or August this year.
For the local business sector, amid the impending arrival of the vaccines, the LGUs should already have a vaccination roadmap and communicate it to the public.
“The roadmap will also point to LGUs the right timing to implement cash for work program and financial assistance to micro businesses,” Carbon said.