CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan -- The Provincial Government of Bulacan (PGB) is set to conduct a simulation exercise of vaccine deployment this Friday, February 19, 2021, to test the readiness of the province once the vaccines arrive.
A total of 833 frontliners and health workers from Bulacan Medical Center (BMC) will be the first group to be vaccinated according to Bulacan Governor Daniel R. Fernando when he presented the overall proposed vaccination plan of the PGB in a virtual press briefing via Zoom spearheaded by Presidential spokesman Sec. Harry Roque, Jr. last Thursday prior to the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines.
The COVID-19 vaccines will come from drugmakers Pfizer-BioNtech and AstraZeneca under the sealed agreement with the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility.
In his presentation during the conference, Fernando said the PGB has conducted microplanning at Local Government Units (LGU) and provincial levels for the allocation for the procurement of vaccines and to have a more effective and efficient implementation of the vaccination plan where frontliners and health workers, from private and public facilities, will be the priority recipients along with the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT), senior citizens, indigent population, and uniformed personnel.
Vaccination teams were also assigned and mobilized. The Pavilion at Hiyas ng Bulacan Convention Center will serve as the main vaccination center in the province.
Fernando also discussed the vaccine risk communication plan which aims to inform and encourage the people about the vaccines and help them understand their benefits.
“Patuloy din ang pagsasagawa ng mga communication campaigns tungkol sa mga vaccines at hopefully, mapataas natin ang bilang ng mga taong magpapabakuna dahil sa totoo lang po, marami pong mga katanungan ang ating mga kababayan at kinakailangan natin na mabigyan sila ng impormasyon tungkol diyan. Malalim pong impormasyon ang kailangan nating ihanda para dito. Lalo na po yung mga napapabalita na tungkol sa nangyari sa Pfizer,” (An information campaign on the vaccines is being conducted and hopefully, we can increase the number of people to be vaccinated, because realistically, many of our countrymen have questions and we need to give them information about that especially on the reported side effects)," the governor said.
He urged the national government to help the province in providing a sufficient amount of vaccines to Bulakenyos.
“Ako po, kasama ang mga LGUs ng lalawigan, ay umaasa na ang DOH o ang national government ang siyang magbibigay sa amin ng mas malaking bahagi ng aming mga kakailanganing vaccines. ( I, together with the LGUs in the province are hoping that the DOH or the national government will provide us with the vaccines that we need)," he added.