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CEBU CITY, Philippines – At least 11,000 healthcare workers in Central Visayas have already completed their COVID-19 inoculation.
But health officials still need to administer the first dose of the vaccine to at least 59,683 medical frontliners.
Latest report from the Visayas COVID-19 Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) showed that as of April 11, 2021, a total of 11,387 healthcare workers in the region have received their second dose.
Central Visayas began administering the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine to health workers between the last week of March and the first week of April.
An individual must receive two doses of COVID-19 vaccines in order for his or her inoculation schedule to be completed.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), said that as of April 11, a total of 72,098 healthcare workers are eligible to be administered with the second shot.
“This is because as of April 11, we have already vaccinated 72,098 of our A1 priority subgroup with the first dose,” said Loreche in a mix of Tagalog and English.
“But the administering of the second dose will vary from time to time since other implementing units are still vaccinating their first dose,” she added.
Based on the same VVOC report, the number of healthcare workers who already completed their COVID-19 inoculation schedule is 9,524 for Cebu island; 1,016 for Negros Oriental; 752 for Bohol; and 95 for Siquijor.
Loreche also said all those who received their second shot of COVID-19 vaccine were injected with Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac.
“We still have no supply of AstraZeneca vaccines for our second dose,” she explained in Cebuano.
In Central Visayas, there are 131, 781 healthcare workers qualified under A1 of the government’s priority list as of March 31.
Under the Philippine National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for Covid-19 vaccines, frontline medical health workers are classified as the A1 subgroup.
This meant that they are the first to be vaccinated for free through the national government’s inoculation drive.
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/bmjo