Tacloban City (CNN Philippines, June 25) — Maasin City Mayor Nacional Mercado has urged the national government to bring in more assistance in his city’s fight against the spread of coronavirus.
In a letter dated June 23 and addressed to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Mercado requested that his city be prioritized in the allocation of vaccine doses.
“We humbly request to be prioritized in the giving of vaccine doses thus allowing an increase of COVID-19 allocation to serve the demand of our beloved constituents who are in dire need of protection,” Mercado wrote.
The mayor said infections spiked to 140, with an average daily attack rate of 15.30 per 100,000 population in the past two weeks.
A total of 3,205 doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines have been received so far by the city.
Mercado also asked Duque to help in the release of their PhilHealth reimbursement to their health facilities. He also requested to be given additional provision for medical equipment like ventilators, high flow oxygen, personal protective equipment, N95 mask, as well as RT-PCR test kits, antigen test kits, and medications like remdesivir.
“We are hoping for a quick reply since lives are at stake every day and resources and manpower are overwhelmed,” he emphasized.
“Our active cases in Maasin City continue to go up, a lot are already suffering especially our frontliners and we are hoping that this will be given action as soon as possible,” he also said.
