Quezon City (QC) malls have turned into vaccination sites as the local government partnered with the private sector to ramp up its program to protect its constituents against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Retail giant SM North EDSA opened on April 12 a vaccination site "to cater to mall employees who reside in the city and are medical frontliners, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities" to help the local government expedite its vaccination process.
Aside from mall employees, qualified residents living in the barangay and in nearby villages where the mall is located were also inoculated.
"The city has had numerous partnerships with the private sector throughout the pandemic, and we’re glad to be working with them still as we vaccinate our residents and immunize them against COVID,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement Tuesday, adding the partnership "addresses the lack of available healthcare workers who will conduct vaccination among residents."
"We have agreed that their own medical team can give the shots to qualified employees who reside in QC, provided that it will be supervised by our City Health Department,” Belmonte added.
The local government said more vaccination sites are expected to open in several SM branches in the city "to cover the target employee population."
It added, "the city is also currently in talks with other private sector groups," including Robinsons Malls, Ayala Malls, Araneta Center, and Eastwood Malls, as well as the Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing sectors, which are all "considered essential establishments during Enhanced Community Quarantine classification."
Six new vaccination sites were recently opened in various barangays for residents "who lack internet access" in a bid "to swiftly roll out the vaccine to population."
The sites are Balingasa High School, Commonwealth Elementary School, Quirino Elementary School, Diosdado Macapagal Elementary School, Lagro High School and New Era Elementary School, which are dedicated to barangay-assisted bookings, or those individuals who do not have access to internet and computer.
“Our target is to open 24 sites to reach herd immunity within six months. With these new sites, we expect to receive more people and the faster the population would be vaccinated,” Belmonte said.
Aside from government establishments and malls, parishes in the city also recently offered their facilities to be turned into vaccination centers.