CEBU CITY, Cebu, Sept. 8 (PIA) -- To provide further response to the threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Consolacion Mayor Joyjoy Alegado, MD wants to prioritize the funding for health care to ensure his people's safety.
During the Network Briefing News interview hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office Sec. Martin Andanar, Alegado said health is wealth.
"We won't be able to do anything if our people get sick. As of now, we have difficulty in treating individuals in hospitals in Cebu City. So we really see the need to focus our budget on health," the mayor added.
He said that with Consolacion being part of Metro Cebu, it is expected that the cases would really rise; as of Sept. 1, they have more than 230 active cases and their daily case test is in two digits.
"We are playing 11 to 20 in a day; this is expected because our surrounding LGUs (local government units) are increasing as well,” Alegado said.
Despite this, he said Consolacion remains to be the lowest in terms of population; and they have been trying to manage their COVID-19 cases.
"We have been intensifying our contact tracing, our testing, we have case finding testing. We have two isolation facilities and most of our cases are home isolated because based on our experience last year, recovery is quite fast with home isolation,” the mayor said.
The local chief executive said they are expecting the cases to rise in the next few days and they are preparing another isolation facility for a surge.
"We're trying to equip ourselves with oxygen, pulse oximeters which we have distributed to barangays. We're hiring more doctors and nurses to take care of these cases," he added.
On vaccination rollout, Alegado said they are targeting 2,000 jabs a day, and they have already vaccinated 40,000 individuals in their town as of Sept. 1 which is about 33% to 34% of their target population.
He said they are doing their best in terms of vaccination and have even set up two sites - one in a mall and another in their municipal gym, however, he noted that there is still hesitancy and difficulty in acceptability of vaccines.
Alegado listed fake news as one of their challenges in the demand generation of the vaccines, as disinformation has already spread not only on social media but also in some religious groups who are doubting the efficacy of vaccines.
Another challenge he took note of are the people who would rather choose vaccines and not take advantage of what is available despite the lack of supply of vaccines globally.
To boost his constituents' confidence in the vaccines and correct all the misinformation, the mayor said the municipal government conducted house-to-house visits to campaign, educate, and inform the people especially the senior citizens and encourage "anti-vaxxers" of the advantages of getting vaccinated.
Alegado said they plan to incentivize individuals who are fully vaccinated, adding that "we're planning to have a raffle draw for them and prepare more incentives as well as to barangays who are able to vaccinate nearly 100% or the first to reach 70% of its population."
"Our team is targeting to reach herd immunity by November with 2,000 jabs per day; if people continue to doubt, maybe we will go beyond our timeline," he added.
"We want to follow the drive-through vaccination done in NCR as well as the Bakuna Nights and barangay rollouts. Within the week, we'll start the barangay rollouts since people don't want to travel anymore, we'll be the ones going to the barangays. We'll also do house-to-house vaccination among the bedridden individuals and their families," Alegado added.
He said the municipal government is trying to "balance everything out" despite the challenges faced in terms of budget.
"I know it’s not easy to handle. Hindi naman tayo lang ang nagka-problema sa COVID kundi buong mundo (It is not only us who are facing the threat of COVID but also the whole world). Despite that, we were still able to save lives. The economy is not worsening at all. It is still alive. That’s what I am most thankful for, for the National Government, for President (Rodrigo) Duterte,” Alegado said.
He thanked the President for what the latter has done for the municipality during this time of pandemic. (IDC/PIA)
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