Some twenty-four personnel of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) have been deployed by city police authorities to assist in the government’s mass vaccination program in identified mega-vaccination centers in the city.
BCPO City Director Police Col. Glenn D. Lonogan reported he already made a formal request to the head of the regional health service of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera for the possible deployment of a separate team of vaccinators to augmenting existing personnel of the local government and the BCPO to increase the vaccination coverage in the city.
He disclosed that the police personnel assisting in the ongoing vaccination campaign are currently deployed at the Saint Louis University (SLU) gym and at the SM City Baguio parking area to ensure that more people will be inoculated as they arrive in the said vaccination centers.
Aside from the deployment of additional vaccinators, Lonogan said that police personnel are also deployed by the different police stations having jurisdiction over the existing vaccination centers to provide security in the area as well as manage the traffic to avoid unnecessary congestions that could cause inconvenience to the people wanting to be vaccinated.
Earlier, Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong requested the BCPO leadership to conduct an inventory of uniformed and non-uniformed personnel in the different offices and stations who could be assigned in the different vaccination centers around the city to assist in the ongoing implementation of vaccination to the members of the priority sectors in the city.
According to him, the inventory of personnel who will be deployed to assist in the ongoing vaccination roll out was already completed and they will be deployed when the needs arise from the vaccination centers to allow them to continue performing their assigned duties and responsibilities in the offices where they are currently assigned.
He claimed that the regional health service already committed a team from the said group whose members can be deployed anytime to the different vaccination centers to assist in the inoculation of members of the priority sectors for the realization of the desired herd immunity among the city’s constituency.
The city is set to open additional vaccination centers in strategic areas with the participation of the private sector to make the vaccines accessible to the potential recipients living in the city’s 128 barangays to further increase the population fully vaccinated in the coming months once the supply of vaccines shall become available.
At present, the operational vaccination centers in the city are the SLU gymnasium along Bonifacio St., the University of Baguio (UB) gymnasium along Gen. Luna St., the SM City Baguio parking area where two levels were devoted for the said purpose, and the Baguio Country Club Cordillera Convention Center. The Saint Vincent gym was earlier used for the vaccination roll out but it will now be used by the institution for various purposes. By Dexter A. See
