The municipality of Trinidad recognizes the help of the national government through the Department of Health (DOH) in the construction of its new rural health unit that will be vital in the ongoing fight against the pandemic, a report from the Philippine Information Agency released on Sept. 29, 2021 says.

In an interview with Presidential Communications Secretary Martin M. Andanar on Sept. 27, 2021, via Network Briefing News, Trinidad town mayor Judith Del Rosario Cajes shared the Coronavirus disease (Covid) response of the said local government unit (LGU).

“Ang bagong rural health unit natin na sinimulan noong 2019 patuloy po ang konstruksyon nito. Ito ay tulong mula sa national government sa pamamahala ni President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. [The construction of our new rural health unit started in 2019 and is still under construction at present. This was possible through the assistance from the national government under the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.],” she said.

The national government funded the construction of the rural health unit amounting to P 2 million and ordered the deployment of additional DOH medical staff for the town.

“Susubukan po natin na tapusin ang construction by the end of the year. [We will try our best to finish the construction by the end of the year.],” Cajes added.

According to Cajes, the DOH assigned a medical doctor who will head the health unit and deployed eight nurses to the town.

The LGU hired an on-call doctor and three permanent nurses that will supervise the Covid situation in the town.

“Pero nagsusumikap tayo na sa [kabila] ng kakulangan ng staff. Patuloy ang pagseserbisyo natin sa mga taga-Trinidad. [But we are working hard already [despite] the lack of staff. We continue to serve the people of Trinidad.],” she shared.

Moreover, town chief lauded the DOH for the vaccines and deployment of additional medical force to vaccinate the people of Trinidad.

“Ang munisipalidad ng Trinidad ay nagsusumikap upang mas mabigyan pa ang ating mga kababayan ng mga bakuna. [The municipality of Trinidad is working hard to provide more vaccines to our people.],” she said.

As of Sept. 23, 2021, the Municipal Vaccination Team inoculated 8,696 individuals which is 30% of the total population of Trinidad.

She added that volunteer doctors and all the frontliners have been a great help since the start of the vaccination rollout to protect them from the virus, citing the efficient vaccination efforts of the LGU that vaccines were given within three to five days.

“Sa katunayan, bukod sa araw-araw na [vaccination] sa Cultural Center ng Trinidad, mayroon din tayo na naka-schedule na clustered vaccination para sa mga malalayong barangay ng munisipalidad. [In fact, apart from the daily [vaccination] at the Cultural Center of Trinidad, we also have a scheduled clustered vaccination for the remote barangays of the municipality.],” she concluded.