Cebu City Health Dep’t: It may take a year to complete vaccination program

The Cebu City Health Department says that it will take a year to complete the vaccination program and there will be 10 vaccination sites in the city.  file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — It may take a year before the vaccination program will be completed.

This was the statement of the Cebu City Health Department with regards to the planned mass vaccination of 70 percent population in the city.

Dr. Jeffrey Ybones, the City Health officer-in-charge, said that there would be 10 vaccination sites all around the city most likely in gyms, schools, or large covered spaces near hospitals.

There will be at least four vaccination teams per site catering to 100 individuals each rendering a daily vaccination rate of 400 individuals per day per site.

The vaccination team will be composed of four to six vaccinators.

Read: Sinovac most likely to arrive first in Cebu — DOH-7

In theory, the city could vaccinate 4,000 individuals per day, which would mean that in a year of less, the target population of 70 percent can be acheived.

“Maybe mahuman ang tibuok, maybe, less than a year kung mao na atong computation. Ang amo is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” said Ybones.

(Maybe we can complete it [the vaccination], maybe, in less than a year because that is our computation. That includes the time from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) is targetting a total of 5 million people for the vaccines for this year to achieve herd immunity so to the point of planning a 24/7 vaccination program.

As for Cebu City, Ybones said the city would stick to the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule for now because a 24/7 vaccine site would need more personnel and the logistical planning might be complicated.

Read: Vaccination profiling starts for Cebu City

The City Health is appealing to the public to allow the profilers into their homes to get their information, whether they may be from the Mayor’s Information and Liaison Office (MILO) or the barangays especially for the senior citizens who are among the priority group for the vaccination.

The health agency want the profiling to be completed even before the vaccines arrive so that the identification cards (ID) can be realesed, and the city already will already know how many will need to be and can be vaccinated depending on the number of doses that arrives here.

This preparation is essential because vaccines cannot be inoculated immediately without health assessment of the beneficiaries and other prerequisite information.

Ybones said he was hoping that while the city would patiently wait for the vaccine, the residents, such as those in the priority groups of senior citizens and indigents, would do their part in the preparations for the vaccine roll-out.

/dbs

Read:DOH-7: We will accept any COVID vaccine brand that will arrive

Read: Duterte signs bill to hasten Covid-19 vaccine purchase; set up P500M indemnity fund