MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City government has opened vaccination opportunities for workers only available in the evening.
In a statement, the LGU said that the program, dubbed 'QC Bakuna Nights', aims to expand the reach of the city and immunize workers who can't get off work or don't have time to visit a vaccination site during the day.
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"This is for our workers who can't miss work to get vaccinated [especially] on those days when the wages are paid...They don't have to choose [between] a daily income or a vaccine," said Mayor Joy Belmonte.
The largest city in the Philippines, Quezon City is home to an estimated 1.35 million workers, according to the city government's estimate.
For the month of June, Metro Manila cities are vaccinating beneficiaries listed under the A4 priority group, which consists of frontline workers and uniformed personnel among other essential workers.
As it currently stands, around 2,000 pre-registered frontline personnel in essential sectors are set to be inoculated at the Quezon City Hall Grounds on Wednesday.
To date, 1.33 million cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in the Philippines, over 56,000 of whom are still classified as active cases.
Per the LGU's latest case tally Wednesday afternoon, 1,861 active cases remain out of the 99,485 total infections in the city.
"We aim to maintain the momentum of administering 433,000 doses all the way to achieving population protection," the city government said earlier.
However, Belmonte earlier disclosed in a statement that the local government unit is "seriously considering" terminating its contract with Zuellig Pharma Corp., the creator of the eZConsult online service used by the city's vaccination program.
— Franco Luna
Disclosure: Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which operates digital news outlet Philstar.com. This article was produced following editorial guidelines.