Taguig inks deal with AstraZenica for COVID vaccines

PARAÑAQUE CITY, Jan. 13 (PIA) -- The Taguig City Government announced on Monday that it has signed a deal with British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines to be administered for free to residents.

According to Mayor Lino Cayetano, aside from AstraZeneca, the local government is currently in talks with other vaccine suppliers to ensure all Taguigeños will have access to the COVID-19 vaccines.

“The national government’s allotment will come first. We expect it during the first quarter but that will be for medical front-liners and the vulnerable sectors, so we have already been preparing our vaccination sites and vaccination protocols,” said Cayetano. 

“We want, however, all Taguigeños to have access to the COVID vaccine. All LGU procurement of vaccines, we are told, will come after the national government allotment, and that will be sometime during the last quarter of 2021,” Cayetano added. 

The Taguig City Government's agreement with AstraZeneca has been approved by the National Task Force Against COVID-19, and the Department of Health. 

In a previous statement Cayatano said, “The vaccine is just one component of our fight vs COVID. Other important aspects include aggressive testing in all our 31 barangay health centers, drive-through testing, mobile testing, and disease surveillance which we will continue aggressively in 2021,” 

Model vaccine stations and citizen identification cards will be launched this January. 

The local government allotted P1 billion for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, which is included in the P13.5 billion 2021 “recovery budget” of Taguig City.

Aside from the strengthened testing, the local government will also continue to invest in healthcare and treatment. (PIA-NCR) 

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https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1063693
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