This Week in Boracay and Iloilo (March 21 to 27, 2021)

The COVID-19 vaccines are being allocated properly to medical workers in Iloilo City, according to the Department of Health in Wester Visayas (DOH-6) after being urged by the city mayor to hasten the distribution. Mayor Jerry Treñas appealed to the DOH-6 to have urgency in vaccine distribution to six referral hospitals.

Dr. Mary Jane Juanico, spokesperson of DOH-6 explained that it took the department three days to designate and distribute 16,880 doses of Sinovac vaccines to the hospitals. She also stressed that the distribution is being done in phases based on the critical population and priority group of an area [1].

Last March 12, 2021, a hundred healthcare workers in the Province of Guimaras were vaccinated against COVID-19. These health workers are from Buenavista Emergency Hospital, Dr. Catalino Gallego Provincial Hospital, and Nueva Valencia District Hospital [2]. The first person inoculated in the province was Ruffa Geraldoy, a medical technologist of Nueva Valencia District Hospital who was willing to be vaccinated regardless of the vaccine brand. She encouraged her fellow frontliners to get vaccinated so that more people may reap the benefits of the vaccine. By the same token, Congresswoman Ma. Lucille L. Nava also challenges the province’s frontliners to be vaccinated to put an end to this pandemic.

Apart from S-Pass, a travel management system developed for contact tracing, Boracay tourists are still urged to use the Aklan QR Code. Tourists coming to the world-famous island must register for a QR code at Aklan’s website (www.aklan.gov.ph). Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores noted that the QR Code provided convenience to the province as it maintains its local management system [3].

While saliva tests are now approved as a requirement for inbound travelers entering the province of Aklan, Boracay stakeholders are persuading the local government and agencies to use these tests in the island as well. To attract more tourists to Boracay Island, the stakeholders anticipate a positive response from the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force and the National Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease.

Saliva tests cost PhP2,00 and can give results in about three to four hours only. As of writing, the island’s border still requires tourists to obtain a negative swab test not more than 72 hours before their arrival to Boracay Island [4].

Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Iceland, Germany, France, Thailand, the Netherlands, and more countries have suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines over concerns about its possible side effect, namely reports of blood clotting in recipients. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization emphasized that there is no established link between the doses and the blood clotting and still advocates for the use of the vaccine [5].

Go to Yoorekka for more COVID-19 updates in Boracay.