Pateros Mayor Miguel “Ike” Ponce III on Thursday announced that the municipal government will vaccinate people from other local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila.

This, after Pateros achieved its target of vaccinating 80 percent of its eligible population for the first dose, or 56,000 people of the estimated total population of 70,000.

Ponce said the municipal government was asked to help other LGUs in the vaccination program and he obliged. But Pateros residents will still be prioritized in the vaccination.

He said Pateros will issue a QR code and guidelines for non-residents to get vaccinated in the municipality.

To prevent fully vaccinated people from other LGUs from getting an additional dose, or booster shot, Pateros has coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in the registration of non-residents.

Non-residents need to register via QR code and their names will be sent to the DICT for checking if an individual has already been vaccinated or not.

“Once the DICT has finished with the checking, the clean list will be sent back to us and we will schedule little by little. Only gradual. No walk-ins. They need to receive a text message before going to the vaccination center and they need to bring a valid ID indicating where they reside,” said Ponce.

The mayor said Pateros will do this to help other LGUs since the municipality has already achieved “herd immunity” for the first dose.