QUEZON CITY -- Amidst the current circuit-breaker lockdown in the National Capital Region, Go Negosyo, in partnership with SM Supermalls and Robinsons Land Corporation, launched close to 50 shared vaccination sites to assist and provide efficient access to vaccines to more than 300 MSMEs and their close to 170,000 employees nationwide.

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion said that there is an urgency to halt the recently detected transmission of the Delta variant through an accelerated vaccination rollout. “The Delta variant is here, and we must prepare now. With more and more cases being recorded, it has become a tight and dangerous race between the Delta variant, the government, and private sector’s efforts to vaccinate the unvaccinated. We need to slow down the acceleration of the Delta infections to buy us more time to inoculate the unprotected. Delta’s viral load is 1,000 times higher in people infected and is 6 times more transmissible. We must prepare now and build our wall of defense by striving for herd immunity. If we do it now, we can save more lives and livelihoods," he said.

Concepcion further stressed the necessity to make use of this ongoing lockdown to vaccinate a considerable number of people in the country’s pandemic epicenter. “We need to do this as fast as we can, as we are aggressively rolling out vaccination efforts to prevent the transmission of the Delta variant across Metro Manila,” he added.

Concepcion also acknowledged the support of the country's major mall chains, SM and Robinsons, to facilitate the private sector's inoculation rollouts. "With this, I recognize the efforts of our partners, SM and Robinsons, for facilitating a speedy private sector’s vaccination rollout, and making it more accessible to our kababayans,” he added.

"We will continue providing the necessary support to the country's vaccination drive to help reduce hesitancy and to strengthen willingness amongst Filipinos to get vaccinated against COVID-19. With our collaborative effort, we will be able to realize our goal of achieving herd immunity by year-end and bouncing back stronger and better in this pandemic," SM Supermalls President Steven Tan said.

Meanwhile, RLC President and CEO Frederick Go stressed his company’s commitment to help the country’s vaccination rollout in partnership with the private sector. “We, at Robinsons Land, are committed to doing our part in helping the country and our fellow Filipinos overcome this crisis. We will continue to support efforts to vaccinate the population at the soonest possible time," Go shared.

Under "A Dose of Hope” program, led by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion, the private sector, national government, and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have forged their lasting commitment in helping the country’s vaccine procurement process by signing a tripartite agreement. This effort is targeted to benefit the employees and economic frontliners in the country through the initiative of the private sector.

With this partnership among Go Negosyo, Robinsons, and SM Supermalls, vaccination efforts through shared vaccination sites as such, gearing to vaccinate workers and economic frontliners under the category of micro, small, and medium enterprises’ (MSMEs) bracket, will eventually help us achieve our ultimate goal: to protect the most crucial 4th quarter of the year in order to achieve a Merrier Christmas and more prosperous new year.

For interested MSMEs, please contact Go Negosyo Programs Development Officer Samantha Sadorra at 0917-550-2670.        (MCG/PIA-IDPD/Go Negosyo)