Subic health workers administer vaccine shots under the SBMA-DOH vaccine rollout. Photos by Malou Dungog
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — More than 13,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority for workers and residents in the Subic Bay Freeport under the agency’s vaccination program in partnership with the Department of Health.
SBMA chair and administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the vaccine rollout seeks to ensure adequate protection for stakeholders in Subic and facilitate the revival of local businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic
“We’re gunning for herd immunity with the vaccination program in Subic because that’s the only way that we can reopen and sustain the economy. We need to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the residents and workers in the Freeport so that we can minimize, if not contain, the spread of the virus,” she added.
Eisma said that as far as SBMA employees are concerned, 82 percent of the agency’s 2,249 workforce are already fully vaccinated while 12 percent are awaiting their second dose.
“On the other hand, we still have a long way to go among residents and workers in the freeport, but with more vaccine allocation from the DOH, we are closing the gap steadily,” she added.
“It also helped a lot that we have received donations of biomedical refrigerators, as well as freezers and vaccine transporters, thus enhancing our capacity for storage and distribution,” Eisma said.
According to Dr. Solomon Jacalne, head of the SBMA Public Health and Safety Department (PHSD), the agency’s health workers have already administered a total of 13,063 vaccine doses as of Nov. 24. This is broken down into 8,404 first doses and 4,659 second doses.
Most of the beneficiaries of the SBMA-DOH vaccine rollout are residents of Olongapo City, who received a total of 8,138 doses. Meanwhile, 1,937 jabs have been administered to residents of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone; 1,653 doses for residents of Zambales; and 1,335 shots for those coming from communities outside Zambales.
Figures from the SBMA-PHSD also showed that most of the shots administered were Pfizer vaccines with a total of 5,516 doses, followed by Sinovac, with 3,881 shots; AstraZeneca, with 3,306; and Janssen, with 360.
The SBMA-PHSD reported early this month that the Subic Bay Freeport no longer had any active Covid-19 cases among residents, transient workers and SBMA employees for the first time since July 2020, following the recovery of five Subic residents and three SBMA employees who were the last to contract the virus in late October.
However, Jacalne said the month-long record was broken last Tuesday when an SBMA employee, who is a resident of Olongapo City, tested positive while undergoing diagnosis for an unrelated medical procedure in Manila.
The latest case is asymptomatic and is under home quarantine, Jacalne added.
Eisma meanwhile reminded Subic stakeholders and visitors to maintain health safety protocols, even when Subic had eased quarantine restrictions following its classification as under Alert Level 2.
The SBMA no longer required negative test results for persons entering the freeport, but is enforcing here government guidelines on outdoor and indoor activities for both residents and visitors.
“The virus is still here, although we’re slowly defeating it,” Eisma said. “We cannot be complacent in observing health measures because we simply cannot afford another surge that will shut down businesses and livelihood here in Subic.”
