Taguig expects vaccine shipments by March

Taguig City Mayor Lino Cayetano said the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the national government could arrive in the city by March or April of this year, according to a report by GMA News.

“Hindi tayo mahuhuli pagdating sa vaccination,” Cayetano said in a press release, adding that the demonstrations for the inoculation will transpire in the city as early as this month. 

According to Cayetano, the second batch of vaccines may be expected by the end of the year. 

Earlier, the mayor announced that a total of P1 billion was allocated for the free COVID-19 vaccination of its residents.

Cayetano also said the local government is already preparing for the city's recovery program, noting that some projects will be rolled out in the next months. 

It has been continuing its aggressive testing against COVID-19. As of January 8, a total of 98,811 RT PCR tests have already been conducted, which shows that 10.01% of the total local population was already tested. 

"The establishment of our own molecular laboratory helped us reach our target of almost 100,000 swab tests by the end of 2020 which is equivalent to 10 percent of our total population,” Cayetano said. 

"Kailangan maging agresibo sa testing, agresibo sa disease surveillance at agresibo sa pag-iingat para di tayo mahawa at di magkahawaan,” he added. 

So far, Taguig City has 10,811 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 10,612 recoveries and 171 fatalities, Cayetano said.