PetPal, the Philippines' first pet care super app, now offers home vaccinations through its platform. Launched for National Pet Wellness Month in October, this new service highlights the importance of regular veterinary check-ups and preventive care to help pets stay healthy year-round.

In the Philippines, many pet owners go to veterinarians only during emergencies. A Royal Canin survey revealed that an estimated 80% of Filipino pet parents delay appointments until their pets are already ill or require urgent care. PetPal aims to change this reactive approach.

The government's vaccination program is ongoing in every city and municipality, and are giving the vaccines to individuals according to its list of priorities. Perhaps this is our fastest and effective way to fight COVID19, ensuring everyone's safety. One of the local government units that listed the biggest number of people vaccinated on a single day is the City of Manila with a total number of 27,626 on June 18, 2021. Together with the different hospitals under the City, like Sta. Ana and San Lazaro the number would not be impossible to reach. Let us note that Sta. Ana Hospital is one of the respected hospitals to first open a Covid ward.

Yorme Isko Moreno has made vaccination centers more pleasing for its constituents by asking help from SM Manila and SM San Lazaro who agreed to allow the city the use of its air-conditioned theaters as vaccination centers.

Yorme does his mandate, serving the people of Manila.

Aside from the City of Manila, other cities also did go beyond in order to vaccinate more individuals.

Something good news for all! Grab Philippines launched its GrabBayanihan Vaccination Support Program to help increase vaccine access and education for Filipinos. The program includes a range of measures to encourage all consumers and driver- and delivery-partners to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Grab Philippines will also work closely with the national and local government units and leverage its ground fleet network and app to offer mobility, communications, and logistics support for their respective vaccination programs.

In a recent survey conducted by Pulse Asia, it revealed that 61 percent of Filipinos don’t wish to get inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine even if the shot is available. GrabBayanihan Vaccination Support Program is focused on vaccine access and education. As the Philippines begins to roll out vaccinations, Grab is committed to supporting informed and equitable access to vaccines for all Filipinos.

Access: To support easy access to the COVID-19 vaccine and to encourage its employees, partners, and consumers to get vaccinated through the local government units, Grab Philippines is committed to:

• Work with local and national governments to include Grab driver- and delivery-partners in the National Vaccination Program of the Philippine Government as economic frontliners.
• Work with its partners to provide pre- and post-vaccination telemedical consultation to help identify the comorbidity status of its driver- and delivery-partners, and connect them with their local governments for inoculation.
• Extend its Post-Vaccination Livelihood Protection insurance policy free of charge to cover the potential loss of income to driver- and delivery-partners resulting from COVID-19 vaccine side effects.
• Create a specialized fleet of vaccinated driver-partners to provide discounted mobility solutions for senior citizens and high-risk individuals or those with comorbidities going to and from vaccination centers.
• Subject to vaccine supply availability, Grab Philippines will subsidize the cost of COVID-19 vaccines for driver- and delivery-partners who are not covered by the national vaccination program.
• Cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations for all Grab Philippines employees and their immediate family members.

Education: Grab Philippines is working closely with the Department of Health to provide up-to-date vaccination information to combat misinformation and boost public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines.

• Together with the Department of Health, Grab Philippines will publish accurate vaccine and other public health information within dedicated high-visibility spaces in the Grab app.
• To help governments better understand the public sentiment around vaccines, Grab Philippines will launch a “COVID-19 Snap Survey”. The survey will enable the Department of Health to conduct lightning polls to gather real-time data on vaccine sentiment. Grab hopes this will enable public health authorities to better tailor their vaccine strategy.
• Grab Philippines will also conduct a series of workshops and town halls to educate its driver-, delivery-, and merchant-partners on the benefits of getting vaccinated.

Grab Philippines Country Head Grace Vera Cruz said: “Many of our kababayans spent the last year making enormous sacrifices for our communities - showing the best of who we are as Filipinos. Now that we are gradually striving towards socio-economic recovery, we believe that the vaccination efforts- from both the private and public sectors- provide much-needed hope for many of our kababayans. Through Grab Philippines’ technology, platform, and partnerships, we are reinforcing our commitment to supporting livelihoods, and helping the recovery of our communities.”