The Department of Health in Central Visayas (Region 7) on Friday cited the province of Siquijor and Mandaue City for achieving more than 70 percent of desired population protection against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
In a presser, Dr. Van Philip Baton, DOH-7 medical officer, said the province of Siquijor reported that 76 percent of 70,859 people aged 18 and above considered under the national vaccination program as eligible for inoculation are already registered as fully covered against the virus.
On the other hand, Mandaue City has long been an achiever for having fully inoculated more than 70 percent since June but the current data showed it already fully vaccinated 77 percent of their population of 283,006, Baton said.
The DOH-7 official said the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Cebu are catching up, as the island city inoculated 69 percent of 318,480 persons listed as eligible for the vaccination rollout.
This city, Baton said, has inoculated 61 percent of the 719,979 residents listed under A1 (health front-liners) to A5 (indigents) categories in the national vaccination prioritization program.
The provinces of Cebu (excluding the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu) fully vaccinated 26 percent of their population, but Baton said this low turnout is not seen as a problem because it is the only locality with the highest target of 2.2 million people eligible for inoculation.
Bohol fully covered 36 percent of their 961,871 population and 23 percent of Negros Oriental’s 990,637 population.
“If you noticed Siquijor recorded high percentage coverage between the first dose and fully vaccinated, the reason being is that we counted those who received Johnson & Johnson as fully vaccinated or fully covered,” Baton said.
Meanwhile, DOH-7 chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said they have been giving booster shots since two weeks ago to those under categories A1 to A3.
Although, the giving of booster jabs to the general population started on Friday, however, “the guidelines are yet to be released so let’s wait before we accommodate the booster shots. Although, the better way to implement this would be the LGUs (local government units) should identify sites for primary series and second doses versus those sites that can handle booster shots only. Likewise, proper information drive as to the schedules and assigned sites must be addressed,” Loreche told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview.
She said the region has enough vaccine supplies while pointing out the role of the LGUs in doing proper inventory and coordination to ensure the adequacy of other supplies such as syringes
Source: Philippines News Agency