CEBU CITY, Philippines — Hospitals in Central Visayas are encouraged to fast-track not only their respective inoculation schedules but also the submission of data related to them.
This after the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) on Thursday, March 18 said they had yet to achieve a 50 percent success rate in vaccinating all the region’s healthcare workers against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH-7 spokesperson, said the compliance rate in Central Visayas, based on the data they had received from all over 30 hospitals doing their respective inoculation drives, was still at 31.4 percent as of March 17.
As of March 17 too, there have been 13,843 hospital workers, who received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines — both from Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
“But our compliance remained low. We still have not reached 50 percent. This is why we’re urging our hospitals and other health institutions that already received the vaccine to fast-track so we can proceed with A2 of the priority list,” said Loreche in Cebuano.
A2, in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination priority schedule, refers to senior citizens, said Loreche.
Medical frontliners, the top of the priority list, are tagged under A1.
Read: More Sinovac vaccines arrive in Central Visayas
Central Visayas already received over 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
All of these formed part of the vaccines donated to the Philippines by the Chinese government and European nations respectively.
Read: Cebu hospitals start rolling out AstraZeneca vaccines
DOH-7 identified around 54,000 healthcare workers in Central Visayas who are qualified to receive free vaccines under the government’s vaccination initiative.
Read: LIST: Priority groups for government’s Covid-19 vaccination program
Hospitals in Central Visayas are encouraged to fast-track their vaccination drive and submit their data to the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7). | file photo (Morexette Marie B. Erram)
On the other hand, Loreche said a total of 22 hospitals in Central Visayas had already finished inoculating their workers with the first dose of Sinovac.
Read: COVID Vaccine Watch: 12k healthcare workers in Region 7 receive Sinovac
She also said they were currently checking reports if the healthcare worker, who recently died of COVID-19 despite receiving the vaccine, was from Central Visayas.
But as of the moment, the regional health office here did not record any case of hospital workers suffering serious adverse reaction after getting vaccinated.
“We recorded, as of March 17, 202 healthcare workers who reported experiencing mild adverse reaction post-vaccination,” she added.
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Central Visayas began last March 4.
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Read: DOH-7 verifying if health worker, who died of COVID-19 after vaccination, is from Central Visayas
Read: Comorbidities increased risks of vaccinated health worker who died after contracting COVID-19