WITH the recent approval of the Food and Drugs Administration on the emergency use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, Benguet legislative caretaker Eric Go Yap on Thursday, January 28, 2021, vowed to purchase at least 600 for medical frontliners in the province.
Yap, during the turnover ceremony of the 16-bed capacity isolation facility in Benguet General Hospital (BeGH), said aside from medical frontliners, members of the media will also get a shot of the vaccine.
“Yung House ngayon nag in talk na kame with Secretary Galvez para maisabay yung mga staff ng House of Representative. Nag side talk ako with the speaker, baka pwede akong makisabay, personal fund ko kahit mga 300 doses lang or 600 dahil dalawa. Ngayon pag meron na, uunahin ko yung mga frontliners dito sa Benguet Gen. and syempre kayong mga nasa media,” Yap said.
The lawmaker is expecting the vaccine to arrive earlier than June to start the vaccination.
Yap together with Benguet Governor Melchor Diclas led the inauguration of the P13-million isolation facility from the Department of Public Works and Highways–Cordillera Administrative Region (DPWH – CAR).
Benguet General Hospital Acting Chief Dr. Meliarazon Dulay said the facility is a big support to the continuing fight against the Covid-19 as the province continues to record a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Yap assured continued support to the BeGH in its response to the Covid-19 situation in the province.
The ACT–CIS partylist representative personally funded last year the construction of the Covid-19 Molecular Laboratory at the BeGH and is fast-tracking its license to operate from the Department of Health and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. He also provided facilities for the molecular lab.
The isolation facility will serve as a step-down facility of the hospital for Covid-19 patients who have shown signs of improvement and recovery from the disease.
The BeGH facility is one out of three completed in the province by DPWH.
Soon to be turned over is a dorm-type facility in Barangay Ucab, Itogon with 42 beds.
The Ucab facility can be used as a multi-purpose hall, while a 20-bed isolation facility in Ambongdolan, Tublay town is also ready for turnover.
Benguet is expected to have additional 78 bed isolation facilities.
Records from the Benguet Provincial Health Office said there are 1,168 isolation beds at the temporary treatment and monitoring facility aside from the 509 isolation beds at the community quarantine facilities located in the 13 towns of the province.
There are also 52 beds assigned as critical care beds in district hospitals. (SunStar Bacolod)