A high-ranking official of the Department of Health (DOH) has lauded the City Government of Naga for its effective and efficient vaccination program.

DOH Assistant Secretary Nestor Santiago Jr., MD made the remark on Monday, Nov. 29, to see how the 1st National Vaccination Day went on in this city, Iriga City and in the towns of Bato, Del Gallego, and Cabusao.

He said on December 15-17, this year, a second round of the national government’s vaccination day will reel off to give more focus on a more consolidated efforts that aim to further the vaccination coverage in the country.
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The former DOH regional director in Bicol also took notice the decreasing number of Covid-19 cases in some parts of the country which, he said, has been happening also in this city.

“The situation indicates that Covid-19 cases here in Naga, which can now be counted in our fingers, are well below as compared to several hundreds of people diagnosed negative to the virus,” he said.

As of Nov. 20, the Analytics Team of Health Emergency Response Task Force has registered a 14-day average daily attack rate of three.

Santiago also lauded the local government for the establishment of more vaccination sites whereupon it continues to gather a bigger number of vaccinated people. “Naga’s vaccination coverage is remarkably high and the constituents’ participation in vax rollout is truly laudable,” he said.

The city government sets its target to vaccinate 3,863 high school students on the last day of November or before December 1, this year. As of this writing, around 5,305 children (ages 12-17 years old) were administered to have received a first dose of either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.

As of Nov. 26, the total number of individuals (adult and children) vaccinated with first dose are 86,336 while the fully vaccinated are 68,123.

Aside from the JMR Coliseum which houses the city’s Mega Vaccination Center, the city maintains at least 12 vaccination sites (6 schools, 2 malls, and 4 covered courts).

Santiago, who hails from the municipality of Cabusao, thanked the city government for aggressively taking the frontline alongside with the national government in the fight against Covid-19. He said Naga is participating well in the so-called “whole of the society approach” to address the problems brought about by the pandemic.

In a brief meeting with Santiago at the Naga City Mega Vaccination Site, Mayor Nelson Legacion attributed Naga’s impressive vax coverage to the teamwork and cooperation of the private sector, especially the academe, which permitted the LGU to use their schools as pediatric vaccination sites.

A glance at the city’s latest Covid-19 situationer from the Analytics Team (as of Nov. 20):

1. We have now surpassed the situation pre-delta surge in July and August 2021. The last time we saw 7-day average daily cases of 5 was at the beginning of April 2021.
2. Our 14-day Average Daily Attack Rate has further slid to 3, from 4 a week ago
3. Our case growth rates have been negative for 6-7 weeks now (for 2-week and 1-week growth rate, respectively)
4. We have had 11 days of single-digit 7-day average cases, starting in Nov 10. For Nov 19 and 20, our average has gone down to 5.
5. Even our positivity rate, which moved sideways last week, resumed its downward track. It ranged between 12-13% on Nov 19 and 20, better than last week’s 19 and the peak of 41 in late September
6. For the last 3 weeks, our hospital resources have been at low-risk category.

Willy Prilles, Analytics Team head, said that for the above reasons, the city is further downgrading its projections from 10-20 last week to 5-15 this week, on the strength of durable mean R numbers at around 0.5-0.7.

Despite the crisis brought about by Covid-19, the celebration of the 29th National Family Week in the city promises to make the 2,475 Sanggawadan schoolchildren in the city happy.

This, after the LGU Naga’s Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) prepares to distribute tomorrow, September 24, this year, school supplies like art materials, pencils, and pad papers that the children can use during online classes.

Annabel Vargas, CSWDO head, said that aside from the supplies, each kid, whose families are members of the city government’s Sanggawadan Program, will also be given 10 kilos of rice. Each of them will receive again 30 kilos more before the end of September, this year.

Before their admission to the Sanggawadan program, the children worked as watch-your-car boys, newsboys, peddlers of homemade meryendas and kakanin, store attendants and helpers at ukay-ukay (hand-me-down) stores, to help augment their families’ income, which also deprived them of precious time to spend for studies and stay in school.

The program provides indigent families with rice subsidies in exchange for sending their students to school to complete at least their elementary and secondary education. The amount saved for rice may be expended for their children’s transportation and daily allowance.

Included in the list of Sanggawadan children are sons and daughters of solo parents.

The program is an extension of the AusAID State and Urban Working Children Program (SUWCP) that the city government continues to implement even after the said international agency terminated the program 12 years ago.

Among the 25 cities in the country where SUWCP had been implemented, only the city of Naga decided to sustain its implementation despite the cessation of financial and material assistance originally extended by the AusAid.

While in the stage of budget preparation, the City Budget Office of the city government of Naga said that it is likely to endorse for Sangguniang Panlungsod approval an annual budget of P1.6-B for year 2022. The LGU’s budget last year was P1.4 billion.

City Budget Officer Francisco M. Mendoza said that at moment all the departments and offices of the city government are presenting their individual budget proposals to the public via zoom with the members of the Naga City People’s Council (NCPC) and other representatives of different sectors in the city. It can also be seen in the Naga City government Facebook page.

He said the public presentation of budgets serves as a facility for the local government’s offices and departments to inform the people of their priority goals in the coming year and report how they dealt with their respective financial plans and finances in previous year.

The budget office plans to submit the city’s proposed annual budget to the city council for approval in October 2021.

The budget officer who also serves as the LGU’s administrator said that it can be presumed at this early that the primordial thrust of the city next year will again be the sound management of Covid-19 responses.

“Aside from that, we also aim to continue to undertake interventions that seek to revive the local economy,” he said.

Mendoza said the city’s community employment program (CEP) is among those that can expect a bigger budget next year along with the Business Stimulus Program and Tabang Tugang.

CEP provides short-term 10-day community work at minimum wage to those who were displaced from their jobs due to the pandemic while the Business Stimulus Program provides interest-free loan to various types of businesses similar to the Tabang Tugang which aimed at providing displaced workers with zero-interest loans to be able to establish online and offline livelihood ventures.

He also bared that the LGU is also planning to hire more skilled and non-skilled Nagueño workers for its long-term projects like the construction of new roads, establishment of new development areas, construction of new hospital and other development works to be able to provide them with long-term benefits and bigger incomes.

In a separate interview, City Engineer Alexander Caning said that the LGU was able to generate more than 13,000 construction works due to its various infrastructure projects. He said these projects were undertaken with workers who are residents of the city.

Expected to get a bigger allocation too in the 2022 annual budget are programs on social welfare, nutrition, scholarship, medical assistance and other forms of services being provided for the benefit of the constituency.