City officials requested the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB), the Baguio Tourism Council (BTC) and the Permits and Licensing Division of the City Mayor’s Office to submit a list of the business establishments in the city that are providing discounts and perks to customers or patrons fully vaccinated against the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) for dissemination and possible commendation.
Under Resolution No. 362, series of 2021 signed by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, local legislators stated that the city government appreciates and commends the partnership of the business sector, particularly the HRAB and the BTC, for the widest dissemination of the list of business establishments granting discounts to fully vaccinated individuals in the city for the enjoyment of the general public.
Further, the council added that the grant of discounts by the establishments to fully vaccinated individuals against the deadly virus is one of the strategies to entice people to patronize these businesses as part of the overall efforts to gradually and safely allow the economy to start recovering from the heavy impact inflicted by the ongoing pandemic.
Earlier, the body approved Resolution No. 319, series of 2021, that encouraged business establishments in the city to offer discounts or perks to clients or customers fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The body claimed that the discounts or perks are being offered by the participating establishments to encourage residents to be vaccinated against the virus for their own protection and help prevent the its rapid spread that might cause the local health care system to be compromised and frontliners unduly stressed.
Baguio City is one of the local governments that is doing well in the roll out of the government’s mass vaccination program to help in achieving the projected population protection and herd immunity probably by the end of the year or early next year.
Moreover, the city government is procuring more than 380,000 does of AstraZeneca vaccines to vaccinate more than 190,000 of the city’s adult population as its contribution in the overall efforts of the national government to achieve population protection and herd immunity against the deadly virus.
However, there has been a serious delay in the arrival of the vaccines from the supplier which committed to deliver the vaccines by the middle of this year but until now, only around 10,900 doses were received by the city government.
The city government is yet to get a definite commitment from the supplier on the date of the delivery of bulk of the purchased vaccines so that the city can vaccinate a larger part of its constituency. By Dexter A. See