What to expect in Cebu City’s vaccine roll-out?

COVID-19 vaccination in Cebu City. | Delta Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government is planning to conduct its own Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine roll-out within six months with city-purchased vaccines from India.

Yet early on, the city government is already planning the roll-out system as they plan to hold this in ten vaccination sites all over the city with a target of 100 vaccinated individuals per day.

City Health Department (CHD) officer-in-charge, Doctor Jeffrey Ibones, said that they will take the opportunity for the vaccination of barangay health workers and other medical frontliners next week to see how the roll-out would occur in a mass setting.

A simulation was conducted with the barangay health workers in the city in the Don Bosco Youth Center in Barangay Punta as a prelude to the mass vaccine roll-out.

So when the vaccines arrive, what should one expect to happen when the roll-out is being done in the barangays?

Here is the step-by-step process for the vaccine roll-out:

1. Pre-registration in the household  Expect that some barangay health workers (BHW), who will by then be already vaccinated, will visit the households to get basic information from members who belong to the priority group. This includes senior citizens and indigents.The BHW will also have an initial assessment on the health condition of the beneficiary including preexisting conditions, allergies, and pregnancy.

   All these pieces of information will be encoded in the database of the city government that will be extracted through the internet on the actual roll-out day.

2. Watch out for your scheduleOnce the vaccine will be available, the city government will schedule roll-outs for the beneficiaries from the different barangays. Prepare your face mask, face shield, identification card, and be on time at the vaccination site. A slip with a QR code will also be provided that beneficiaries need to bring on actual day.
3. Two-step verificationOn the vaccine roll-out day, the beneficiary must enter the site with complete personal protective equipment. They will be asked to wash their hands then wait in an area where they will be asked to verify their identity. A document explaining the vaccines will be provided and the people will be oriented on the process in this step.

   Afterward, they will go to another area where their QR code passes will be scanned to get their profile previously collected by the BHWs. The information must match before they can move on to the next step

   The two processes will take approximately five minutes depending on the number of people in the venue and the strength of the internet connection.

4. Registration The first step to the registration will be to check the person’s vital signs. This way the medical workers will know if the person is in the right condition to be vaccinated.Their blood pressure, temperature, and other preexisting conditions will be checked, and they will be asked to state their allergies and medications they are taking.

   As of now, only multiple allergies can put a stop to the vaccination process. Those with cancer or chronic diseases only need clearance from their doctor to be vaccinated.

5. Counseling In order to avoid a rise in blood pressure and other vital signs due to fear, all individuals will need to be counseled by doctors and nurses.They will be explained what the effects of the vaccines will be, what it will do to the body, and how it protects an individual against the COVID-19.

   This is the step where an individual can choose to say no. If they opt to continue, they will sign a waiver saying they understand the consequences of being vaccinated.

   This process will take the longest as the doctors and nurses will try to comprehensively explain to the individual the pros and cons of a COVID-19 vaccine.

6. Vaccination Perhaps the quickest step of all, the vaccination will take less than a minute to occur. The intramuscular vaccine will be injected in the arm of the individual opposite to his or her handedness.This means that an individual who is right-handed will be vaccinated in the left arm while a left-handed individual will be vaccinated in the right arm.

   After the vaccination, the needle entry will be patched with a band-aid with the seal of the Cebu City government.

7. Monitoring The monitoring will take up to 30 minutes before an individual recently vaccinated can go home.The person will be given a card that contains his or her next shot and a nametag that indicates the time of entry in the monitoring area and the time when they will be allowed to go out.

   The city government has placed medical personnel and ambulances in the vicinity in the case that any individual will experience critical or adverse effects of the vaccines.

   So far, in the 10,000 health workers vaccinated, none of them have experienced severe adverse effects.

   Upon leaving the monitoring area, the individual must make sure to bring home the card for the next shot, of which the process is repeated after two weeks.

https://www.facebook.com/cdndigital/videos/838819336978684

Assessment

Ibones said that their simulation exercises proved that their system works, albeit certain areas need improvement.

In particular, he said there should be a stronger internet connection as ten laptops sharing a single WiFi source simply would not load as fast as they wanted.

The city government is partnering up with telecommunications companies to provide connectivity in the vaccination sites.

“Nagkinahanglan sad tag mga TV (television) monitors para makita sa mga tawo kinsay sunod,” said Ibones.

Ibones said they have enough time to study the system and tweak any part of it that may not work for actual mass vaccinations.

Since the vaccines are not expected to arrive soon, City Health will be busy preparing instead, pre-registering beneficiaries and smoothening out the process. /rcg