Feature Where are you in the vaccine queue? This Pinoy-made tool can tell 16
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MANILA – You can now get a rough idea how far you are in the line for the coronavirus vaccine with a Pinoy-made calculator that estimates where you are in the queue. Engineer Kenneth Alambra from the University of the Philippines Los Baños developed the Philippine Vaccine Queue Calculator, which takes into account your age, profession, health condition, and risk factor. The calculator estimates the number of people in front of you in the queue and the possible dates when you could get your shots, based on the available vaccines at present and the government's target. Alambra said he drew inspiration from a similar online tool developed by his colleague Steve Wooding for the United Kingdom. He teamed up with his researcher friend, Reina Sagnip from De La Salle University-Manila, and together, they created the tool for the Omni Calculator Project, based on the national priority list. In order to reach the national plan of vaccinating 70 percent of the country's adult population by end of 2021, Alambra said the government needs to vaccinate at least 1,274,980 people per week. "Based on my tool, I'm in line behind at least 19,665,964 Filipinos, and my turn falls within October 3, 2021 - May 29, 2022.
I believe my calculator answers a question on millions of Filipino’s minds," he said. Alambra hopes this tool could provide a sense of what's to come and serve as a reminder to the public to protect themselves while the country works towards achieving herd immunity. "Coming into the year 2021, I think that most of us are wishing that the virus would just disappear, but in reality, it’s going to take time to get us all vaccinated. That was one of the major motivators for this calculator, giving people a realistic timeline, and comfort knowing that the end is in sight even if it’s still months away," he told the Philippine News Agency (PNA). How to use the vaccine queue calculator? 1. Enter your age in years. Senior citizens or those 60 years old and above will be called up sooner than younger ones to have the vaccine. 2. If you are a front-line health worker, you will be prioritized because you are likely to have a lot of exposure to the virus and needs to be protected. Answer yes to this field if you are currently an active frontline health worker. 3. If you have any comorbidities like hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, any cardiovascular or respiratory diseases, stroke, or cancer, to name a few, answer
yes to the persons with comorbidities field. However, it would still be best to consult your personal physician before taking the vaccine to ensure your utmost safety. 4. Are you classed as a nonhealth front-line essential personnel falling under A4 priority group or other workers under priority eligible group B? Answer these fields out appropriately. 5. The Philippine government also prioritizes people in high-risk areas where the population is highly dense. Indicate if you are a part of the indigent population as determined by the government, a person with disability, or part of the sociodemographic groups at significantly higher risk of exposure to Covid-19. For example, you are a 29-year old person with no co-morbidity and is neither a front-line health worker nor an essential worker, you should expect to receive your first dose of the vaccine between Aug. 18, 2021 and Oct. 17, 2021 if the government is able to achieve a vaccination rate of 1,274,980 a week. Who are first on the list? In a nutshell, those who have been on the front-line of the pandemic, including doctors, nurses, hospital staff, police and soldiers, get the jab. In the country, the vaccination rollout has begun on the first day of March, with health
workers getting the first jabs. The elderly adults are next on the list. When is mass immunization expected to start? National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said the mass immunization of the general public will begin once the vaccine production and supply become steady between May and June 2021. The Philippines targets to inoculate one million Filipinos weekly in April, two million weekly in May, and at least three to five million weekly in July and in the succeeding months. A s of t h i s w r it i ng, a l l 1,125,600 doses of vaccines available in the country have been deployed in various public and private hospitals nationwide, with healthcare workers as a priority. Within this month, the Philippines is expected to receive two million more doses of Covid-19 vaccines, about 1.4 million are CoronaVac from Beijing-based biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac. An additional two million CoronaVac doses and two million of Sputnik V from Gamaleya and the COVAX Facility are also expected to arrive by April. The Philippine Vaccine Queue Calculator may be accessed for free through https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-philippines. (PNA)
THE AMERICAN... from Page 5 most benefit from the new law are low-income children. 14 percent of American children live in poverty; the relief bill would cut that to 7 percent. The rates of poverty are higher for Black children at 18 percent; and Hispanic children, at 22 percent. “Poverty harms children throughout their lives: early brain development is disrupted, leading to slower and stunted growth,” said Maag. She noted that children who grow up in poverty are less likely to graduate from high school or attend college. Employment and health are tenuous throughout their lives. Maag added that the two-year measure is unlikely to end cyclical, generational poverty, but is a start. Stone challenged the Labor Department’s tabulation of the unemployment rate, currently 6.2 percent — about 10 million people — and said a more accurate number would be about 9 percent. Incoming Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last month that unemployment rates could be as high as 10 percent, as millions of people dropped out of the workforce during the pandemic.
Pre-pandemic, unemployment rates were 3.5 percent. Last July, however, as businesses shot down, unemployment skyrocketed to 16 percent, with 32 million people out of work. The new unemployment relief measures are set to expire Sept. 6. Stone said he would like to see members of Congress return to the bargaining table before they go on their summer break in August. “They should be looking at economic conditions and deciding whether it's reasonable to allow these benefits to expire on Sept. 6, or whether they should do something to further extend them,” he said. Job losses have been most dramatic among low-wage earners. 31 percent of all industries with the lowest average wages at the start of the recession have accounted for 55 percent of the 8.1 million private-sector job losses over the past year, said Stone. Siby of ROC United advocated for a rise in the minimum wage; a hotly-contested debate in Congress to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour was left out of the final version of the bill. 78 percent of the
nation's 27.1 million service workers are women, people of color, and immigrants. Over one third of the nation's service workers do not earn enough to consistently make ends meet, he said. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Restaurant workers, who earn a portion of their wage in tips, are paid about $2.31 per hour. Siby compared the cost of living to income: a single mother of one child in Mississippi would need $26 per hour to live, but earns only $7.25. In California, using the same scenario, a single mother would need $40 per hour to make ends meet, yet earns just $12. “We have a huge gap between what people need to live on and what they are actually receiving and this is why the dependency on government subsidy is so high now,” he said. Minimum wage raises would not adversely impact small business owners, who are accustomed to working in low profit margins, said Siby. He also said it was possible to raise minimum wages even amid the pandemic, as the proposed plan which failed would have annually raised wages incrementally.
Saturday-Friday | March 20 - 26, 2021
RENT... from Page 1 front-line workers and low-wage earners are behind on their rent due to the economic fallout of this pandemic,” said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH) Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramirez. “They have accumulated significant debt and their landlords are struggling to meet their financial obligations. The CA COVID-19 Rent Relief program will be a lifeline to renters and landlords. It clears accumulated rental debt, keeps families hardest hit housed and will lead to a more equitable economic recovery.” Both renters and landlords can apply for CA COVID-19 Rent Relief. If landlords choose to participate, they will receive 80 percent of an eligible tenant’s unpaid rent for the period of April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 if they agree to waive the remaining 20 percent of unpaid rent. Renters making less than 80 percent or less of the Area Median Income (AMI) for their location are eligible. For example, a family of four in Visalia in Tulare County is eligible for rental assistance if their household income is $55,900 or less. Renters’ income eligibility will automatically be calculated during the application process. Eligible renters with landlords who choose not to participate in the program can apply on their own. Those renters will be eligible to receive payments of 25 percent of unpaid rent accrued from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, which can help protect them from eviction under SB 91. “One of our primary goals is to ensure we reach and serve communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic,” said Gustavo Velasquez, Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, which is administering the program. “We appreciate the support and partnership of local jurisdictions working with the State to ensure that those in most need of assistance get clear, accurate, consistent, and accessible information on how and when to apply.” A statewide network of has been established to help individuals answer eligibility questions and submit applications. In addition, a robust statewide multilingual communication and education effort is underway to help inform renters and landlords about the availability of CA COVID-19 Rent Relief. The application will be available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Chinese and Korean, and help will be available in more than 200 additional languages through the California COVID-19 Rent Relief call center at 833-430-2122. Applications from landlords or renters must include all required information and eligibility verification items to be processed. Case management teams will be available to help applicants complete their applications. There is a checklist for renters that includes the paperwork they will need, and one for landlords. Once an application has been successfully submitted and processed, both the landlord and tenant will be notified by a COVID19 Rent Relief case manager about the application status. For more information on program eligibility, required application information, and to start the application process, visit HousingIsKey.com or call 833-430-2122.
VACCINATION... from Page 1 Without vaccines, that would take five years. If 25% of the community is vaccinated, it would take two-and-a-half years. But a 50% vaccination rate would bring herd immunity in 10 months, Dr. Sarah Lopez, an emergency room doctor at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, explained. As for rumors of community members being “vaccine hesitant,” reluctant to trust getting vaccinated, “We’re not seeing that,” Jim Mangia, president and CEO of the St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, said. His organization provides medical, dental and mental health services to 120,000 people at 20 sites and three mobile clinics in south and central Los Angeles. “What we’re seeing on the front lines is patients who need access to vaccine. Throughout the community, people are lin-
ing up for the vaccine.” At a church vaccine site recently, where 600 people had made appointments for vaccines, he said, word-of-mouth led 1,000 people to step up and get their shots. “The county, the Department of Public Health has been doing amazing work,” he said. As of the previous weekend, his organization has vaccinated 80,000 people and is now serving 25,000 per week. Ninety-five percent of those vaccines, Mangia said, have gone to African American or Latinx clients. With vaccines available at its clinics, East L.A. Civic Center, Clinton Elementary School, Compton College and other sites, “I think what we’re doing now is building the infrastructure to be able to mass-vaccinate the communities of central and south Los Angeles,” Mangia said.
Lopez took her own doctor’s advice and was vaccinated while undergoing chemotherapy for an aggressive breast cancer last year. She explained some of the differences among various types of vaccines. Some, like the (40% effective, she said) flu shot or hepatitis-B or HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines include a sample of the virus it’s aimed at. But others, including all the COVID vaccines, do not. Like the vaccines developed to battle Zika and Ebola, the new Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine is known as a “viral vector” that attaches to corona virus “spike proteins,” triggering the body’s immune system to reject them. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines produce a similar effect using messenger RNA in ways previously developed to fight cancer. All three, Lopez and County
Department of Public Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis said, “are 100% effective at preventing hospitalization or death” and none caused even one hospitalization or death during testing while COVID-19 wrought its havoc. As for the new re-openings, schools serving students in grades 7-12 can now open for in-person instruction, as can colleges and universities, except for their dormitories. Restaurants, movie theaters, zoos, museums, aquariums and food courts can now operate at 25% capacity, although safety guidelines such as mask-wearing and social distancing are still in effect. And retail and personal care businesses can operate at 50% capacity. “Just because certain activities are allowed does not mean they’re without risk,” Davis cautioned. So gyms and yoga
and dance studios are limited to 10% of capacity, because physical activities pose greater transmission risks, he noted. At movie theaters, seating will be reserved and at least 6 feet distant from people from other households. To have indoor dining, a restaurant has to have adequate ventilation and tables at least 8 feet apart, with a limit of six people – all from the same household – at each. “Outdoors is safer than indoors,” he said. “Most of us still are not vaccinated.” But, “as more vaccine frees up,” Mangia said, “we are going to get more and more vaccine into the arms of people who need it, and see that herd immunity get to the levels we need to allow the communities of South L.A., Central L.A., East L.A., to be safe, go back to normal, back to work, and socialize with our families.”
