Home vaccinations in Cebu City: Why not?

Cebu City has started its home vaccination dry run. | Photo from Cebu City PIO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government is considering the possibility of launching a house-to-house vaccination campaign for its elderly and bedridden residents.

But acting mayor Michael Rama wanted to test the system first.

Rama wanted to especially be certain that hybrid vaccination will not put at risk the health workers and the vaccinees.

A dry run was started on Friday, August 6, to see if the system works.  Dry run will continue in the coming days and will be implemented on selected days and in a particular areas with senior citizen occupants.

“I call it ‘City Hall at your doorstep, Vaccination at your doorstep.’ Atong gistudyhan ang (we are studying the) pros and cons because we need to be extremely careful because the vaccination should not be a superspreader,” said Rama.

Rama said that while the city government continues to encourage vaccination, there is a need to also bring the service closer to those who are unable to leave their homes because of old age or their physical or health condition.

Target households are also carefully selected because the program will involve the vaccination of all household members, not just their elderly or sick family member.

Based on his assessment, Rama said, that he is so far satisfied with the program’s outcome.

Still, he instructed the Vaccine Operations Center (VOC) to conduct further studies before he will decide on wether or not to implement this program in the entire city. / dcb