Metro Cebu still has a long way to go in its vaccination drive. | STOCK PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The government needs to inoculate over 1.3 million individuals from at least seven localities in Metro Cebu, as of mid-June, in order to achieve a successful COVID-19 vaccination coverage.
Recent data from the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) showed that as of June 15, a total of 114,480 from seven towns and cities belonging to Metro Cebu have received their first dose of the vaccine.
But of this number, only 37, 675 managed to complete their inoculation schedules or have already been administered with the second dose of the vaccine.
These individuals are from the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay, Naga, and the towns of Consolacion and Minglanilla.
“The challenge is very huge for all of us. But let us continue on and let’s not lose hope to achieve our goal of having a happy (and) merry Christmas this year,” commented Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, chief pathologist and spokesperson of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7).
VVOC recorded a total of 1,706,117 people in these areas eligible to receive free COVID-19 vaccines from the national government.
So far, however, only 388,066 have successfully registered to the government’s online registration system and have their names master listed.
The same report said Cebu, as a whole, has been allocated a total of 525,612 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from four brands.
These are CoronaVac (Sinovac Biotech-China), AstraZeneca (AstraZeneca – UK & Sweden), Pfizer-BioNTech (Pfizer and BioNTech SE – US & Germany), and Sputnik V (Gamaleya Research Institute – Russia).
According to Loreche, some of the challenges they encountered in the vaccination drive included the availability of the vaccines, the readiness of individuals master listed, the number of vaccination sites, and the turnout of people who are willing to participate in the vaccination drive.
“We will not stop encouraging and urging our constituents to have themselves vaccinated for the benefit of everyone,” she added in Cebuano.
Cebu is one of the top-priority areas in the national government’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign outside Metro Manila. /rcg
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