CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija: Anxiety over lack of budget to procure vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has reportedly gripped 27 town mayors in Nueva Ecija province in Central Luzon even as barangay (village) officials earlier took the initiative to pool their own resources to help their respective municipal governments purchase the antidote to the deadly virus.

The provincial council, led by Vice Gov. Emmanuel Anthony Umali, had allocated an initial fund of P10 million to avail of the vaccine produced by the British-Swedish company, AstraZeneca.