GUAGUA, Pampanga (PIA) -- The municipal government said it will prioritize economic frontliners or those belonging under A4 category in its local vaccination program.
 
Mayor Dante Torres said these include public transport drivers, market vendors and workers, and workers of other establishments and offices.
 
“We need to give them protection because they are more exposed, going in and out of their homes everyday. Based on what we see in our town, our economic workers are the ones who usually contract COVID-19 and chances are, they can transmit this to their housemates. By protecting them, we are trying to avoid bigger problems,” Torres said.
 
With this, the mayor said that the municipal government purchased vaccines from its local funds in its aim to inoculate more Guaguaeños and achieve herd immunity in the soonest time possible.
 
“Sometimes, it’s hard to rely so much on the national government, so we have to have our own plan. We have allocated P15 million from our budget this year to buy COVID-19 vaccines. We did this so that we can bend a little bit the guidelines of the national government when it comes to prioritization. We are in a hurry to inoculate our workers,” Torres said.
 
According to the mayor, prioritizing workers is one way to arrest the virus and revive the local economy.
 
He added that reviving the local economy is a must because aside from providing income and jobs to the people, it also generates revenues for the town, which can be used to procure more vaccines in the next years.
 
Torres said that the town’s vaccine procurement will be a continuing program, and funds will be allocated for the next years, until all eligible individuals in the town are vaccinated.
 
The town has initially procured around 15,000 doses of vaccines, which are expected to be delivered on the third week of August.
 
Meanwhile, data from the municipal government shows that there are around 35,000 workers from the town. (CLJD/MJSC-PIA 3)