NEGROS Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has called on all mayors in the province to urge their employees to get vaccinated against coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
So far, only Mayors Salvador Escalante Jr. of Cadiz City and Nicholas Yulo of Bago City had issued memorandums to their respective employees requiring them to be vaccinated.
On Thursday, November 25, Escalante mandated that City Government employees and consultants should be inoculated.
Escalante said all employees and consultants of Cadiz City Government are required to pass their vaccination cards or certificates to their respective department heads or supervisors on or before Monday, November 29.
He also ordered that effective December 1, all unvaccinated city employees will be required to submit a negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) test or rapid antigen test every week at their own expense.
Any employee who fails to submit their RT-PCR or rapid antigen test will be marked as absent until he or she is able to submit the requirement, he warned.
Escalante also stressed that consultants who fail to submit, meanwhile, will not be able to receive their honorariums until they comply with the mayor's memorandum.
All officials and employees of national government agencies also operating in Cadiz City are also covered in the mandate.
They were told to submit their vaccinated cards and certificates before November 29 or they will not be allowed to enter the premises of the city hall or other local government unit buildings to render their official duties effective on December 1.
In Bago City, Yulo also issued a memorandum on the same day encouraging all city officials and city government employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in compliance with the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Resolution 148-B, Series of 2021 dated November 11, 2021.
The Bago City Government employees who are not vaccinated starting December 15, 2021 will be required to present a negative RT- PCR test every 15 days at their own expense, Yulo said.
When asked if he will also implement the same policy at the Provincial Government which has about 3,000 employees, Lacson said, he will check first if how many more employees who have not yet been vaccinated.