FILE PHOTO: A syringe is filled with a dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Central Visayas recently reached another milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
The Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) reported that as of September 12, 2021, a total of 1,006,554 individuals in the region have already received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This directly translates to 1,006,554 people from the region fully vaccinated against the infection.
Central Visayas received close to 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the national government since the rollout started last March.
Of this number, 2,326,663 have already been administered both for the first and second doses, the same VVOC report stated.
An individual is considered fully inoculated against COVID-19 if he or she manages to receive two shots.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of VVOC, welcomed this development and expressed optimism that local governments, particularly in Metro Cebu, may achieve herd immunity before 2021 ends.
Loreche also commended local government units (LGUs) in Cebu for accepting walk-ins as an effort to ramp up immunization coverage rates.
“In terms of supply, we have been promised that more vaccines will come,” she added.
Central Visayas, based on the 2020 census, has a population of 8 million, with 5.1 million coming from Cebu island.
Data from VVOC showed that 709,188 individuals in Cebu, including those from the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu, and Mandaue, were already fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
This meant that Cebu’s immunization coverage rate is currently at 14 percent.
Cebu is among the national government’s priority areas in its inoculation drive.
/bmjo
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