Over 73,000 residents of the City of Manila have pre-registered to reserve their slots for free coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccine as of Tuesday.
The Manila city government launched manilacovid19vaccine.com on December 31, 2020, making it the first local government unit in the country to open such a platform.
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso earlier said that they want to make the vaccination process voluntary. Vaccines will also be administered for free, regardless if they are residents of the city or not.
Those who pre-registered will be included in the priority list for the city government’s vaccination program, below frontline health workers, senior citizens and other vulnerable sectors, and public school teachers.
The city government has secured an initial supply of 800,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses through an agreement with British-Swedish biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The vaccines, that are seen to arrive in a few months, can inoculate around 400,000 people.
Domagoso has expressed intent to purchase more vaccines from other multinational biopharmaceutical companies provided that they are given approval for use and distribution by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In 2020, the Manila city government earmarked a P250 million budget for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. The Manila mayor said they can increase the budget to up to P1 billion should they need to buy more vaccines. (Minka Tiangco)
