COVID-19 vaccination at SM Seaside City Cebu. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines — As far as Cebu City is concerned, nondisclosure of the COVID-19 vaccine brand prior to the actual inoculation did not adversely impact its vaccination drive.
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout here for medical frontliners, senior citizens, and individuals with co-morbidities is still ongoing as of Monday, May 24.
“We’re glad that there are still a lot of residents signing up and lining at our vaccination centers (despite the nondisclosure rule), and we’re hoping this will continue in the coming days,” said Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, Cebu City Health Officer, in Cebuano.
Mayor Edgardo Labella earlier ordered city health officials to comply with a recently issued order from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), directing localities doing their respective vaccine rollouts not to mention the vaccine brands ahead.
This developed after reports circulated, alleging that some citizens refused to proceed with their scheduled vaccination due to preference of brands.
The city’s COVID-19 supply consists of three brands — CoronaVac, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Ibones said they were targeting to consume all remaining supplies of AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech this week.
“We still have close to 3,000 doses left of Pfizer-BioNTech. There’s a big possibility that (we) will use all them up by Wednesday (May 26),” he added.
Ibones also said close to 35,000 individuals have already been administered the vaccine.
The city is targeting to inoculate at least 700,000 residents here if it meant accomplishing a 70 percent success rate, which experts say is the threshold for achieving herd immunity.
But as of May, Ibones said only around 130,000 have successfully registered and formally gave their consent to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“But the figures still grow each day, and at least we already made progress than having nothing at all. We’re hopeful with the mass vaccination come this June, we will be able to fast track our goals,” explained Ibones.
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