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CEBU CITY, Philippines – Health officials here are concerned about the low turnout of vaccinees in at least nine localities in Metro Cebu.
Between September 20 to 26, the government was only able to inoculate 27,000 individuals with the 1st dose of the vaccine, based on the latest data from the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC).
They were targeting to vaccinate a total of 153,750 people from the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay, Naga, and the towns of Minglanilla, Consolacion, Liloan, and Cordova within such period, ultimately translating to a success rate of only 18 percent.
The same thing was also observed for those jabbed with the second dose of the vaccine.
Out of the 153,750 doses allocated for September 20 to September 26 as 2nd dosage, only 66,914, or around 44 percent, were administered.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, VVOC spokesperson, admitted that they were not able to accomplish their targets in the past few weeks.
But Loreche also said they are hopeful that Cebu’s vaccination rates will increase in the coming months as the entire country is preparing to vaccinate the rest of the population, which includes minors.
“With the upcoming release of the guidelines for the (vaccination for young adults) ages 12 to 17 years old, and allowing the general population approach instead of subgroups, we will hopefully expect better vaccination rates,” said Loreche.
The VVOC official also urged local governments to start delivering vaccines to the doorsteps of their constituents if it meant to compensate the low turnout they experienced recently.
Cebu, as an island, should be administering an average of 19,000 doses per day in order to achieve ‘herd immunity’ before 2021 ends.
According to the same report from VVOC, over 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines were already used for the government’s vaccination drive that began last March.
The island-province, as of September 27, already has 928,265 fully vaccinated individuals and 1,085,046 partially vaccinated ones.
Cebu, a priority area in the government’s COVID-19 inoculation campaign, should vaccinate 3 million people to reach ‘herd immunity’.
/bmjo
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