Almost 42 percent of coronavirus infections logged here are unvaccinated, a health official said on Tuesday.
Dr. Donnabel Tubera-Panes, chief of the City Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (CESU), said Tuesday from March 2020 to December 2021, 41.39 percent of the 16,283 recorded cases were unvaccinated, including those who are not yet eligible for vaccination.
Of the total cases, 32.99 percent of those who contracted the virus were fully vaccinated; 12.79 percent were partially vaccinated and less than 1 percent had availed of booster shots.
Panes said more than 85 percent of the individuals who contracted the virus after full vaccination were either asymptomatic or only experienced mild symptoms and did not need hospitalization.
She also added that five Covid-19 deaths logged in December 2021 were unvaccinated.
“We have seen a 30 percent decrease in hospitalization among Covid-19 patients since most of our cases now have mild symptoms and we can attribute this to our high vaccination rate as well as compliance to health protocols particularly wearing of masks,” Panes said.
As of January 8, the city government reported that 261,863 of the 281,000 target eligible adult population have received the full dose of the vaccine while 284, 851 have received at least one dose.
Out of a total of 42,811 target eligible pediatric population or those aged 12 to 17, 28,416 have received the full doses while 32,335 have received at least one dose.
With the threat of the Omicron variant, Panes said the HSO is on heightened alert in monitoring Covid-19 patient admissions in the hospitals.
“Even if Omicron is more infectious, at least its symptoms are mild and we can avoid overwhelming our hospitals since we have the vaccine as our protection against severe infection and hospitalization,” she said.
Source: Philippines News Agency
