Taguig City continues to gear up for the rollout of its COVID-19 vaccination program, with its four megaquarantine vaccination centers and 40 community centers being set up for when the vaccines arrive.
The four megaquarantine vaccination centers include the Lakeshore complex in Barangay Lower Bicutan, where Mayor Lino Cayetano gave a brief tour before his weekly address to Taguigenos on Friday, Jan. 22.
According to the mayor, a dry-run was slated there with representatives of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and other agencies.
Mayor Lino said the 40 schools that would serve as community vaccination centers were also being readied to ensure that all logistical requirements were in place upon the vaccines’ arrival.
For vaccine storage, Mayor Lino said the local government has inked an agreement with world-class Orca Cold Chain Solutions Inc. for the use of its 6,500-square-meter facility in Barangay Bagumbayan.
“Sisiguraduhin nila ang integridad ng vaccine at mula doon hanggang sa mga vaccination centers, sila ang mag-susupervise para sa wastong temperatura ng vaccine,” he said.
So far, the local government has secured vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, but is also in talks with three other vaccine suppliers.
Mayor Lino said the vaccines were apart from the ones to be supplied by the national government, which would be allocated for the medical frontliners.
The second batch of vaccines would be for other frontliners such as enforcers.
He said these could include some members of the private sector who are always outside.
The third batch of vaccines, he said, was for the vulnerable sectors including the elderly, while the rest is for the remaining population.
“To residents, stakeholders, visitors in the city of Taguig, ginagawa ho ang lahat ng pamahalaang lungsod para patuloy na maging handa sa panedmyang ito. Sa awa ng Diyos, we hope this is the beginning of the end (of the pandemic),” he said.
So far, Taguig still has one of the lowest active COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila, with only five cases per 100,000 population.
This is lower than the 24 active cases per 100,000 population recorded by the National Capital Region.
As of Jan. 21, of the 11,095 COVID-19 cases in the city, 10869 have recovered, for a recovery rate of 97.96 percent, higher than Metro Manila’s 95.04 percent recovery rate.
The city has a case fatality rate of 1.6 percent with its 178 COVID-19 deaths, less than Metro Manila’s 2.92 percent case fatality rate.
The case doubling time—or the time required for COVID-19 cases to double—in Taguig as of Jan. 21 is 23 days.
So far, the Taguig government has conducted 108,777 RT-PCR free tests.