THE Department of Health (DOH) has assured that Bacolod City and Negros Occidental will receive coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine allocation accordingly from the Western Visayas Center for Health Development from the arriving supply this month.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, in a reply letter to General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa) Secretary-General Wennie Sancho dated June 28, 2021, said the agency values and acknowledges the labor group's request for more vaccines as it takes on a whole-of-nation approach in ending the pandemic and returning to better normalcy.
Cabotaje, who also chairs the National Vaccination Operations Center, commended Bacolod City and Negros Occidental for administering 58,565 and 90,103 doses from the allocation of 75,740 and 120,360 doses, respectively.
The official was referring to the June 27, 2021 report of the Western Visayas Center for Health Development.
Cabotaje said this outstanding feat can still be pushed further towards attaining the goal of population protection.
"Please accept my most profound appreciation for your offices' unending service to the Filipino people amid this Covid-19 pandemic," she added.
Gawa earlier sought the support of the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) for an increased allocation of Covid-19 vaccines for Bacolod and other cities and municipalities in Negros Occidental.
In a letter to the NIATF chair and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III dated June 21, 2021, Sancho said "our vaccines are not enough, leaving our vulnerable workers dangerously unprotected."
"We are fervently appealing for your kind consideration for urgent and additional vaccines for Bacolod City and Negros Occidental," Sancho said.
The labor leader added that the current surge of transmission of the virus in the city had caused an awareness that the way to combat the rising infection is only through vaccination and observance of health protocols.
"The labor group is grateful that the DOH has replied to our letter," he said, adding that "we appreciate its assurance for additional volume of Covid-19 vaccines for us here."
Sancho, who is also the labor representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Western Visayas, emphasized in his request that the workers need to be vaccinated so that they could already go back to work and no longer afraid of being infected.
"Our workers need the vaccine so that we could help the government achieve herd immunity," he added.
The local labor group is aware of the limited supplies of available Covid-19 vaccines.
"It is for this reason that Gawa with a membership of about 5,000 workers in the province that we humbly appeal for additional and ample supplies of Covid-19 vaccines the soonest possible time," its secretary-general said.