ONLY 6% OF ELIGIBLE PAX VAXXED V. COVID

DOH 7 cites lack of vaccines, low turnout of vaccinees on masterlists

ONLY six to seven persons out of every 100 vaccine-eligible residents of seven Metro Cebu cities and towns have been inoculated since the vaccination program against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) kicked off about 15 weeks ago.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Department of Health (DOH 7) spokesperson, said that although Metro Cebu is part of the NCR Plus 8 priority areas for vaccination, vaccine supply remains a challenge.

She also noted the low vaccinee turnout, with only 388,066 individuals included in the vaccination masterlists of Cebu City, Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, Talisay City, Naga City, and the towns of Consolacion and Minglanilla.

They constitute only about 23 percent, or less than a fourth, of the 1,706,117 eligible population in these seven local government units (LGUs).

“Our challenges include vaccine availability. We are dependent on what the national government delivers to us. We are very thankful to the national government for including Metro Cebu as part of the priority areas,” Loreche said.

As of June 15, she said 114,480, or about 6.7 percent, of the 1,706,117 eligible population in the seven LGUs have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Of the 114,480, about a third or 37,675 have also received their second dose.

Loreche said she was hopeful that the LGUs would be able to complete their masterlists soon. She urged them to ensure that those on the list would show up for vaccination as scheduled.

“The challenge is very huge for all of us. Let us continue, let’s not lose hope because our goal is to have a very happy, merry Christmas this December 2021,” she said.

She also urged the establishment of vaccination sites. Only 14 out of the 31 planned vaccination venues in Metro Cebu have been set up.

“Preparation of venues too so that by the time that the allocation of vaccines arrives, we can already proceed with the vaccination,” she said.

Since the vaccination program began in the region on March 4, DOH 7 has received a total of 724,310 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, consisting of 322,160 doses of Sinovac, 162,000 doses of AstraZeneca, 239,850 doses of Pfizer, and 300 doses of Sputnik V.

These were distributed to the different LGUs in Central Visayas.

Central Visayas

Loreche said more than 80 percent, or 108,559, of the 132,286 masterlisted healthcare workers in the entire region have received their first dose as of June 15.

Of the 108,559 vaccinated healthcare workers, 67 percent or 73,307 have been fully vaccinated with two doses.

Among the senior citizens, 22,133 have received two doses as of June 15 while 65,026 others have yet to receive their second dose.

As of May 24, Loreche said 549,444 senior citizens have been masterlisted for vaccination in the region.

Among individuals with comorbidities, first dose inoculations reached 77,377 as of June 15. This is 52.1 percent of the 148,484 masterlisted persons with comorbidities.

The vaccination figures include those inoculated under the Project Balik-Buhay vaccination initiative, a private-public partnership.

As of June 15, Project Balik-Buhay has administered the first dose to 19,302 individuals, consisting of 1,489 healthcare workers, 3,850 senior citizens and 13,963 persons with comorbidities.

Cebu City

After three days of suspension due to lack of supply, first dose inoculations will resume in three vaccination sites in Cebu City on Thursday, June 17, according to Cebu City Health Department (CHD) officer-in-charge Jeffrey Ibones.

The vaccination sites are University of Cebu (UC) Banilad, UC Senior High School Private Campus and Robinsons Galleria Cebu.

Ibones said he expected delivery of Covid-19 vaccines on Wednesday afternoon. He declined to identify the incoming vaccines.

Officials previously announced that Cebu City has an allocation of more than 21,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. For Metro Cebu, the allocation was 210,600 doses out of the 2.279 million doses that arrived on June 10.

Ibones was mum on whether the Pfizer vaccine would be used when inoculations resume on Thursday.

Ibones said the City cannot yet administer the vaccines to priority group A4 since the available vaccine would come from Covax, which has specified that priority should be given to healthcare workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities and the poor.

More than 206,000 individuals have registered in the city’s vaccination program.

Of the 206,000, around 38,000 belong to A4, which includes workers who have to be physically present in their workplace, government employees, police and military, and informal sector workers and self-employed individuals who have to go out.

Since March 4, around 54,000 individuals in Cebu City have received their first dose. Of this number, around 23,000 have also received the second dose.

Nationwide

Nationwide, inoculations accelerated in the last seven days.

As of 6 p.m. of June 13, DOH reported that vaccinations averaged 140,985 in the past week, a 25 percent increase from the previous week’s daily average of 112,621.

The number of fully vaccinated individuals increased by about 22 percent to 1,879,694 from 1,544,332 on June 6.

Awaiting their second dose are 3,189,161 individuals as first dose inoculations reached 5,068,855.

Nearly 7.0 million, specifically 6,948,549, doses have been administered since the vaccinations began on March 1, 2021.

The government is inoculating priority groups A1 (health workers, mayors, governors), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities) and A4 (government, private and informal sector workers who have to be physically present in their workplace as well as police and military).

Depending on the supply, some local government units may also administer the AstraZeneca-Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) vaccines from Covax to group A5, or the indigent population.

As of June 11, the Philippines has received 12,708,210 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, consisting of 7.5 million doses of Sinovac (CoronaVac), 2.556 million doses of AstraZeneca, 2,472,210 doses of Pfizer, and 180,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V.