LA TRINIDAD, Benguet– The municipal council recently approved the appropriation of some P27 million for the local government’s vaccination program to help achieve herd immunity among the populace possibly by the end of the year or early next year.
Vice Mayor Roderick Awingan stated that the local legislative body formally received a letter from Mayor Romeo K. Salda seeking for the allocation of the said funds that will be used to enhance the implementation of the vaccination program to ensure that a substantial portion of the population will be vaccinated against the dreaded Corona virus Disease (COVID) 2019.
He disclosed that P10 million will be used to purchase vaccines for the adult population while the P17 million will be used for various activities that will ensure the successful implementation of the vaccination program in the municipality.
Earlier, the local government started the vaccination of health workers amidst the low acceptance of the available vaccines among the frontliners but efforts are being done by local officials and health workers to inform and educate the people on the importance of being vaccinated with the available safe vaccines.
Awingan said that the funds were sourced out from the surplus collections of the municipal government and other available sources to ensure that La Trinidad will have the necessary vaccines that will be used for the qualified adult population once the priority sectors had already been vaccinated through the vaccines that had been distributed by the national government in the different parts of the country.
According to him, the municipal council is ready to act on future requests from the local chief executive to augment the provided funds to ensure that the local vaccination program will be sustained until such time that the herd immunity of the town’s population will be achieved.
The vice mayor stressed that through an aggressive information and education campaign, the doubts in the minds of the people on the vaccine will be erased and they will in turn voluntarily avail of the available vaccines that will be given by the national government and the ones that will be purchased by the municipal government as the fight against the continuous spread of the virus in the municipality that had heavily impacted the economy.
Vice Mayor Awingan pointed out that it is high time that the municipal government will focus on the successful implementation of the mass vaccination aside from working out the gradual, safe, sure and responsible revival of the economy as people who were impacted by the pandemic need to have jobs or be engaged in economic activities that will allow them to sustain the upliftment of the living condition of their families.
He urged the residents to sustain their adherence to the prevailing implementation of the basic health and safety protocols as it is still the best way to avoid contracting the virus while awaiting for the delivery of the vaccines that will be used in the implementation of the vaccination program.
Awingan is the team leader of the local government’s Health and Safety Protocols Task Force that is making the weekly rounds to check the compliance of the various establishments on the health and safety protocols as a preventive measure against the surge in COVID cases. By HENT
