A Cebu City health worker gets a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. | Delta Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Vaccination Operation Center (VOC) does not see the proposal for a drive-through vaccination as feasible.
Doctor Jeffrey Ibones, the acting city health officer, said that there would need to be a more thorough study for the possibility of a drive-through vaccination program because there was a process in the vaccination.
Councilor Alvin Dizon has recommended in a resolution that the Vaccine Advisory Board (VAB) study drive-through vaccination to speed up the vaccination roll-out.
In his resolution, Dizon said drive-through clinics might offer a safer, more convenient, and less contagious way of getting the jab as well as offering an alternative for those who have vehicles; thus, cutting the lines in the on-site vaccination centers.
The councilor also urged the VAB to “formulate guidelines on house-to-house vaccination and community or remote vaccination as other means of inoculation in the city to cater to those who could not be physically present in our on-site vaccination centers due to illness, disability, old age, inaccessibility, among others.”
Yet for Ibones, the logistics of the drive-through vaccination centers would be difficult and would cost more personnel than the usual vaccination centers.
The registration, initial check-up, and counselling are important part of the process that cannot be skipped because these would prepare an individual to get the shot.
“Kailangan pa gyod na studyhan kung unsaon nato pagconduct ang vaccination kay medyo lisod gyod siya. If ibutang nato sa SRP para naay kaparkingan, init pud baya didto,” he said.
(This needs further study on how to conduct the vaccination because it is difficult to do. If this will be set up in a parking lot at SRP, the area is also open and hot.)
For now, the VOC will study if it can be possible to hold a house-to-house vaccination for those who cannot go to the vaccination centers.
Ibones said that they would propose any plan to the VAB should they be able to formulate a feasible way to do so whether house-to-house or drive-through vaccination.
/dbs
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