TACLOBAN CITY-As the city aims to speed up the vaccination rollout to ensure more residents will have chances to be inoculated, Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez inspected the vaccination site, this time at the Human Resource Development Center (HRDC) Hall of the Leyte Normal University where over a thousand individuals are targeted to get the COVID-19 jab.
The vaccination hub, which is started Monday (May 17) and to end today (May 18), will be catering to around 800 citizens for the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 370 for the 2nd dose.
Meantime, Mayor Romualdez, who initiated the tie-up with the schools to help hit the objectives, seeks the support of the public in following minimum health protocols.
“I don’t want to lose the focus. Vaccination is important. If you look at it, we survived one year without vaccination and we can survive another year, but the most effective way is to wear your mask and face shield,” the local chief executive stressed.
As of May 7, a total of 4,800 residents belonging to priority categories A1 to A3 have been vaccinated by both Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines.
Meanwhile, acting City Health Officer Dr. Gloria Fabrigas commits that said inoculation drive will continue since there are more vaccines available for Taclobanons.
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
Mayor Romualdez visits HRDC- LNU as vaccine site; vows speedy vaccination for Taclobanons
Teenage pregnancies take a dive
Downside of the quarantine in Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY- The population office of this city has reported of a ‘positive effect’ on the current pandemic: decline of teenage pregnancies.
Based on their record, cases of teenage pregnancies in Tacloban last year, the start of the pandemic, was lower compared to previous year or in 2019.
Cielito Esquibel, city population officer, said that last year, there were only 350 teenage girls or below 20 years of age who got pregnant compared to the 457 cases in 2019.
“The pandemic has resulted to a positive effect, in a way, because it resulted to a decline of teenage pregnancy in Tacloban. Still this is alarming for us,” she said.
“The movement (restrictions) could be a big factor why we have a decline number of teenage pregnancy as they could not go out from their homes,” Esquibel added.
Under the restrictions imposed by the government, teenagers are prohibited to venture outside as a way to contain further spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The city population officer, however, expressed of her worry that now that Tacloban City has been placed under a more relax quarantine classification of modified general community quarantine(MGCQ), might result to a higher number of female teenagers getting pregnant.
“While we don’t have any projection, we are really concern that there could be an increase of our teenage pregnancy cases now that we are under a more relax quarantine classification as this could result for our teenagers to go out and meet their friends or boyfriends, for example,” Esquibel said.
She then called on the parents of the teenagers to monitor their children as a way to protect them, especially girls from getting pregnant.
Esquibel said that getting pregnant at an early age would mean depriving them of a possible good future and that they are not ready to tackle the responsibilities of being a teenage mother or parent.
Meantime, Esquibel disclosed that of the 350 girls who got pregnant last year, almost 50 percent or 173 lived at the various resettlement sites for families whose houses were totally destroyed when Super Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ hit the city in 2013.
And out of this number, five of them were only 14 years of age when they got pregnant.
Esquibel, however, said that they have no data as to the circumstances that led to the pregnancy of these young girls.
She said that the pandemic has also resulted for them to temporarily stop their programs like information dissemination on teenage pregnancy to the villages.
73,000 Sinovac vaccines arrive in the region, expected to complete shots for medical and frontline workers
TACLOBAN CITY-At least 73,200 doses of Sinovac vaccines arrived in the region last Saturday (May 1) which are intended for frontliners who have not yet received the vaccines.
The arrival of these vaccines is expected to complete the vaccination of all health and frontline workers in the region, Dr. Exuperia Sabalberino, DOH regional director said.
The vaccines are also to be administered to medical workers and frontliners as their second doses.
As of last week, 42,101 medical and other frontline workers across the region have received the vaccines, the DOH reported.
“This is the biggest number of doses received by Eastern Visayas and is expected to complete the vaccination of those belonging to A1 category,” she said.
These doses could accommodate over 36,500 individuals, Sabalberino said.
Sabalberino earlier said that they have identified over 80,000 medical and frontliners in the region who are to receive the shots.
The region, she added, expects to receive doses of vaccines this month and on June.
Meantime, the regional Office of Civil Defense (OCD) will be providing free meals for medical and frontline workers in the region.
Lord Byron Torrecarion, OCD-8 director, said that providing meals to these medical and frontline workers is their way of expressing their gratitude during this time of pandemic.
“This is our way of giving back to our medical and frontline workers who are making their own sacrifices (during this pandemic), Torrecarion said.
The giving of free meals started on Sunday and initially projected to end next month.
OCD had earlier provided assistance to various hospitals and offices in the region like distribution of PPEs (personal protective equipment)
As of Monday, the region has 18,223 confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases with 35 new cases as reported by the DOH. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
Mayor Romualdez extends assistance to fire victims in Calanipawan
TACLOBAN CITY- Fire victims that erupted in Barangay 96, Calanipawan on Saturday (May 1) were immediately provided assistance on the order of City Mayor Alfred Romualdez.
The city mayor personally went to the area to look after the 16 families whose houses were gutted down by the fire incident that started at around 11:10 am.
Upon Mayor Romualdez’ order, the City Social Welfare and Development Office(CSWDO), headed by Chona Fe Bahin, distributed food packs composed of six kilos rice, 10 canned goods, coffee, biscuits, milk, and cup noodles, together with hygiene kits, blankets, mosquito nets, and mats.
A day after the blaze, the CSWDO again extended kitchenware and used clothing to the fire victims who are temporarily taking shelter at their relatives’ houses in the area.
Meanwhile, CSWDO Head Bahin stated that the office is working on the recommendation of the family-victims for financial assistance from the City Government of Tacloban.
The fire which was declared “fire out” after almost an hour and left 16 families homeless, was responded by Tacloban City Fire Station, Tacloban Chamber Volunteer Fire Brigade, and the Local Chief Executive himself, Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez.
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)