Vaccines key to lowering COVID-19 cases in Cebu City —EOC

A worker inspects a batch of vaccines produced at a Beijing factory built by Sinovac in this photo taken in September 2020. —AFP

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Vaccines are the key to the lowering of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Cebu City.

This was the statement of Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as the vaccines for the health workers have arrived in Cebu.

Garganera said that inoculated health workers would significantly lower the risks for the COVID-19 to spread in the health sector, which the city government has been constantly avoiding especially with the occasional outbreaks in some hospitals.

The EOC is hoping for the acceptance of the health worker for the available Sinovac vaccines because this would essentially lower their risk of getting sick of COVID-19.

“Sa pagka karon, ang pinaka maayo na vaccine ang kanang naa nato na vaccine. This will at least prevent severe symptoms and death. Nonetheless, I’m sure that the vaccine board headed by Mayor Labella and VM Rama to procure the best vaccine available for Cebu City,” said Garganera.

The city currently has over 3,000 cases, and though the recoveries have been coming, the active cases are yet to decrease with regular new cases being recorded daily.

Garganera said that the vaccines would essentially help reduce this number in the long-run, but he said this was not the only factor that could decrease the number of cases.

“Based on the cases for the past pila ka adlaw, medyo niplateau ta run, and hopefully magpadayon ta muubos pa gyod ni siya. In terms of isolation, sakto na atong isolation centers nato. In terms of contact tracing, swab, atong enforcement, intensified na. This is an all-out approach,” said Garganera.

While the vaccine is still not available for all, Garganera is urging the public to maintain the basic health protocols so that transmission will be minimized.

He added that the vaccine is not a substitute for the health protocols because herd immunity is yet to be achieved.

Even though the vaccines are coming, the EOC will not slow down in its monitoring and response to COVID-19 cases as the transmission will not automatically stop with the inoculation of a few individuals, in this case, the health workers.

The goal of the EOC is to continuously reduce the transmission before more vaccines will be rolled out to the public, Garganera said. /rcg