July 8th, 2021
Salceda touts Albay 2nd district’s capacity to store enough COVID-19 vaccines for herd immunity; calls on other local governments to prepare to store Moderna, Pfizer doses
House Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) says has acquired the capacity to store and administer COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, given acquired cold storage capabilities by critical local government units in the district, namely Legazpi City, Daraga, and Camalig.
In a Memorandum for the President (MFP) thanking President Duterte for his administration’s interventions to keep Albay’s case fatality rate and case surge low, Salceda wrote that the municipalities in his district “have acquired enough cold storage capacity for 190,200 doses of Pfizer or 312,000 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, enough for herd immunity in the district.”
Salceda also updated the President “on the results of his administration’s timely and life-saving interventions in the province.”
“With the full support of the President and the National Government Agencies and the NTF, we were able to lower case fatality rates from 2.52% for cases from March 27, 2020, to June 5, 2021 (the period prior to aggressive NGA intervention) to 0.54% from June 6-30, 2021. This is proof that with adequate local and national cooperation and convergence, COVID-19 and its impacts on the lives of the people can be significantly mitigated.” Salceda said.
Salceda thanked the National Task Force (NTF), headed by Secretary Carlito Galvez, and the Department of Health for supporting his district’s COVID-19 Management and Response Team. Salceda cited that the NTF gave extra COVID-19 vaccine doses taken from the National Government buffer.
“Secretary Galvez proactively and directly intervened to supply the district with 12,000 doses out of 30,000 doses requested,” Salceda said.
Albay ready to store enough doses for herd immunity, other LGUs should follow suit
Salceda said that district is “prepared to accommodate, at any given time, around 187,000 doses, enough to vaccinate around 75% of our district’s population at full capacity, allowing us to achieve herd immunity.”
“Readiness for cold storage is crucial because as the shipments of Pfizer and Moderna come in, the ability of LGUs to store them and jab them will really determine whether an LGU will gain allocations,” Salceda commented.
“We are pleased to inform the President and the NTF that the district is capable of storing and administering about 190,200 doses of Pfizer or 312,000 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. The district is fully capable of handling enough vaccines for herd immunity,” Salceda said.
“We understand that some 13.3 million Pfizer vaccines are set to arrive this month, out of 40 million secured. I have also been informed that some 20 million Moderna doses were also secured. Given the district’s enhanced capability to store and administer COVID-19 vaccines, we request to be considered for allocation of upcoming deliveries,” Salceda said.
Salceda also presented his district’s efforts as a model for other LGUs to follow.
“On June 5, 2021, this representation informed the President through a memorandum for the President (MFP), of an impending wave of COVID-19 infections in the province of Albay. Following the MFP, on June 6, the National Task Force and the Department of Health extended crucial support and assurances in a meeting and in subsequent discussions.”
“We also constituted a COVID-19 Management and Response Committee composed of the DOH (both Central and Regional Offices), Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital (BRTTH), local chief executives of the City of Legazpi and the municipalities of Daraga and Camalig and their respective COVID-19 focal persons, data scientists, civil society organizations, and other key stakeholders, to craft a strategy to anticipate and flatten the COVID-19 surge in cases and to minimize deaths,” Salceda wrote.
“An accelerated vaccination program in our district will allow the area, the economic heart of the province and the largest metropolitan area and regional administrative center of the region, to return to normalcy. This, of course, will be favorable to the economic recovery and delivery of public services in the whole of Bicol,” Salceda also wrote in his MFP.