Gov. Arthur Yap is convening the Provincial Development Council (PDC) this Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, to discuss the Supplemental Investment Plan (SIP) involving a proposed budget of P100 million that will be used by the provincial government of Bohol (PGBh) to purchase Coronavirus disease (Covid) vaccines for Boholanos.
The plan of the province to purchase vaccines comes at the heels of the announcement of the city government of Tagbilaran that it has a P10 million budget that will be used to buy Covid vaccines for Tagbilaranons.
In a related development, Mayor John Geesnell Yap II, in a post on facebook, said that the senior citizens who reside in the city will be the first recipients of the vaccines that will be procured by the city government. The senior citizens need to pre-register if they wish to get inoculated when the time comes with the Covid vaccine procured by the city government.
In a telephone interview last night, Jan. 9, 2021, Yap told The Bohol Tribune that he gave instructions to set aside P 100 million for the purchase of vaccines. The budget is enclosed in the SIP, which subject to the approval of the PDC.
The proactive move is in anticipation of the approval of the national government through its competent authorities of the “most effective, safest” vaccine that will be allowed in the Philippines.
In a separate telephone interview yesterday, Provincial Administrator Kathyrin Pioquinto revealed that the local finance committee (LFC) met on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, to discuss the SIP, which will be presented to the PDC.
Once the PDC, which is chaired by Yap, gives the go signal on the SIP, it will then be sent to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) for approval.
The need for the SIP surfaced as the budget to purchase Covid vaccines was not included in the annual investment plan and subsequently left out in the annual budget of the provincial government for 2021, Pioquinto explained.
She further explained the budget for the SIP could come from funding sources such as loans, overseas development assistance or the national government. It may also come from the coffers of the provincial government, she added.
The provincial administrator revealed the P100million budget is an estimate of the amount the province needs to have in order to procure the vaccines. The plan is to purchase vaccines in tranches, she explained.
The actual number of vaccines that will be purchased remains in limbo as there are factors needed to be considered such as the number of people who are willing to get inoculated, the identification of the segments of the Boholano population that will be given the shots first, and the number of people in Bohol who will be getting the vaccines for free.
She said that in order to achieve herd immunity, at least 70% of Bohol’s population needs to be inoculated.
Herd immunity refers to the indirect protection of a segment of a population from an infectious disease, according to Wikipedia. Herd immunity is achieved if a significant number of people in an area has become immune from an infectious disease either via immunization or previous exposure to the disease itself.
As of the moment, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is yet to approve a Covid vaccine. There are several candidate vaccines being considered like the products of Pfizer (United States), AstraZenica (United Kingdom), Sinovac (China) and Sputnik V (Russia), among others.
The provincial administrator said the most plausible vaccine that will be procured for Bohol is the one manufactured by AstraZenica. The vaccine made by AstraZenica does not need to be transported or stored in extremely low temperature. Bohol simply lacks the facility to store vaccines that need low temperature, she bared.
In the same interview, Pioquinto said there are some private entities who expressed interest to help in the procurement of the vaccine. The private sector may also tap the provincial government’s help in securing vaccine stocks for the use of their employees, she told The Bohol Tribune.
In the telephone interview last night, Yap said that the frontliners will be prioritized if ever a vaccine is available.
He said frontliners in the towns under the wing of the provincial government, such as those working with Tarsier 117, will be given the first priority at getting the vaccine.
Furthermore, Yap said that working senior citizens and those who are self-employed may be given priority in terms of access to the vaccine that will be procured by the provincial government.
The governor said that the P100 million will be good for 100,000 persons. The P100million will be an initial budget allocated for the purchase of the vaccine. He hinted that additional budget may be eyed if the need to procure more stocks of the vaccine arises.