Bacolod City, Negros Occidental— The maiden rollout of Bacolod City’s mobile vaccination drive was warmly welcome by vendors in 3 major markets with a total 428 market vendors receiving their first dose of anti-Covid vaccine during the program’s maiden run on Friday the 13th.
Dubbed as “Vax-i”, the campaign is believed to be the first-of-its-kind initiated by a local government unit in the country, City Administrator Em Legaspi Ang, who is also the concurrent executive director of the Emergency Operations Center and Covid Vaccination Council coordinator, said.
Ang joined Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, head of the local Inter-Agency Task Force, as the Vax-i, one of the city-owned buses, made its first stop at the Libertad Public Market, where 124 vendors were inoculated.
The Vax-i, with doctors, nurses and other health volunteers on board, also vaccinated 190 vendors at the Central Market, the most number of recipients on Day One, shortly after lunch.
Some 114 vendors also received anti-Covid shots at the Burgos Public Market before the team headed back to the Bacolod Government Center, for an online media briefing.
PIONEERING EFFORTS
Leonardia pointed out that the Vax-i is not only an innovative approach but also a pioneering initiative to encourage more Bacolodnons to get vaccinated to fast-track efforts at achieving herd immunity.
Let me commend the EOC, our doctors and all the clusters involved in the anti-Covid campaign since the outbreak of this health crisis. They worked tirelessly day and night while our critics are quick to promote lies and half-truths as if your city government is not doing anything, he said.
The mobile vaccination drive, the mayor continued, intends to vaccinate all vendors as well as public transport drivers, who cannot leave their workplaces to line up for hours at mass vaccination sites otherwise they will have no income for the day to buy food for their families.
As I have echoed during the Vax-i launch the proverbial “if Muhammad cannot come to the mountain, let the mountain come to Muhammad”, it is the LGU’s responsibility to bring its services easily accessible to the people.
That is why, our Vax-i, or the mobile vaccination drive, will also make stops at tricycle and jeepney terminals in the city to inoculate those in the public transport sector, Leonardia said.
