COVID-19 VACCINE ACQUISITION. Antique Vice Governor Edgar Denosta assures mayors during a press conference on Friday (Jan. 15, 2021) that the Provincial Board will approve their budget for Covid-19 vaccines. The Provincial Board reviews and approves the appropriation ordinances of the municipal governments. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Antique provincial board assured that they will approve ordinances of municipalities that would appropriate funds for the purchase of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines.
Antique Vice Governor Edgar Denosta, during a press conference Friday, said the provincial board will do its best, knowing how important is the purchase of the Covid-19 vaccines to the municipalities.
“In fact, we have already approved the 2021 Appropriation Ordinances of some municipalities,” he said, adding that the ordinances already included the allocations for Covid-19 shots.
Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao, during the Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19 meeting with the mayors last January 12, urged mayors to sacrifice some of their infrastructure projects to allocate a budget for the purchase of the vaccines.
“The province had been under the modified general community quarantine for the past three months already and so we might not be included among the priority provinces for the national government’s Covid-19 vaccine,” Cadiao said.
She added that the provincial government has initially allocated PHP10 million for the vaccines and it would be best if the municipal governments could also set aside funds for Covid-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, the provincial board on its January 14 regular session approved a resolution commending health workers at the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) and in the municipal health offices of the 18 towns for their services as front-liners.
“We had passed the resolution commending the health workers and those others who helped make our province to have the lowest cases of Covid-19 in Western Visayas,” Denosta said.
“It is fitting that we recognized the services rendered in making our province to have the lowest Covid-19 cases in the region,” provincial board member Vincent Piccio III, who authored the resolution, said.
Based on the report of the IPHO, Antique, as of Friday, has 13 active Covid-19 cases with the addition of two new confirmed cases.
One of the new cases came from the municipality of Laua-an and was admitted to the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital (ASMGH) while the other one is from this capital town who is under home quarantine.
All 13 active cases are categorized as local transmissions.
So far, the province has 102 total cumulative cases; with 88 recoveries and one recorded death. (PNA)
