Mayor says no such illegal sale of vaccines in San Juan after initial investigation, expresses confidence in the integrity of his people
(Eagle News) — San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said that an initial probe that the city has conducted on the reported illegal selling of vaccines in the city found that this was being done online by scammers.
He said that were able to contact the person who was offered the vaccine online, and said that that this person himself felt that the seller of the vaccine was dubious when he contacted the alleged vaccine seller.
Zamora warned the public not to be duped by these online sellers as the valid and safe vaccines are all being administered for free in the vaccination centers. He asked the public to be discerning and report any alleged sellers of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Online maraming nanloloko. Nakalulungkot na pati bakuna ay binebenta na online,” he said in an interview with Balitalakayan on Monday, May 24, and stressed that the San Juan city health officials were not involved in this.
– Online and social media used by “dubious” sellers-
He said he immediately ordered his team on Friday, May 21, to investigate the incident.
“Friday pa lang mismo ay na-contact namin yung binebentahan, at base doon sa impormasyon mula sa mismong benebentahan ay online nya raw nakita, within in social media lang din, meron daw mga vaccines for sale,” he said.
“Nakapag-usap sila through Zoom. Pero iba raw ang humarap sa kanya, hindi yung nakausap nya. Pagkatapos ng usapan, nag-alangan siya. It reall sounds alanganin (dubious). Nagsisi nga siya di niya nai-record and usapan, ” Zamora said.
He said it was clear that this was a scam, and urged people who had also been offered by this scammer to come out to report the matter.
“Maliwanag na maliwang na ito ay isang scam ng mga tao online na nagpapanggap na kaya nilang magprovide ng vaccines for a fee. Defnitelinely wala hong ganyan sa San Juan. In fact, agad-agad kong kinausap ang aking city health officer. I’m very confident about our people here in San Juan na wala hong nangyayari ganyan,” the mayor said.
-Strict, organized and systematic vaccine procedure in San Juan, says Zamora-
Zamora explained that San Juan City has a very strict, organized and systematic procedure in the vaccination sites where only those who had been confirmed for vaccination could enter. Walk-ins are not allowed.
“Kung wala kang confirmatory text, hindi ka makakapasok,” he said. “Hindi yan walk-in. At yun lamang nasa priority list na na-text ng araw na yun ang makakapasok.”
Zamora said that the confirmed vaccine recipient should also bring valid IDs, barangay certificate of residency, and a medical certificate in case he or she has comorbidities, to present to the “gatekeepers” of the vaccination facilities.
So far, he said that there were already 23,000 residents of San Juan, close to 27 percent of the target population to get vaccinated.
He said that the city had also used up all their Pfizer vaccines, and only the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines are left in their supplies. He said that they have around 20,000 vaccine doses — 10,000 doses each for AstraZeneca and Sinovac. This is good for about two weeks.
He said that they’re confident that the national government would give them more vaccine doses, as they are vaccinating about 1,800 people a day, which would further increase because they are opening another vaccination site. Before, they were only vaccinating 600 to 800 because of limited supplies.
In June, they will open another vaccination site at the Greenhills Shopping Center to vaccinate the A4 or the essential workers, and the A5 or the poor in the city.
(Eagle News Service)