CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Health Department (CHD) has intensified the vaccination campaigns in the mountain barangays as it sees a significant drop in walk-in individuals in the urban sites.
Doctor Jeffrey Ibones, officer-in-charge of the CHD, said they had scheduled regular vaccinations in the mountain barangays after they still found a low turnout in the hinterlands.
The CHD has released a schedule for the mountain barangays in the North District for the month of November and this is as follows:
Ibones said that they felt the need to reach out to the mountain barangays because residents there simply did not have access to the regular eight sites in the urban center.
“Maglisod silag naog, maglisod silag register, so kita nalay moadto, ang moreach out sa ilaha kay importante gyod nga mabakunahan sa pud ang mga naa sa bukid,” said Ibones.
(They found it difficult to come down the mountain, they found it difficult to register, so we will be the one going there, to reach out to them because what is important is that the people on the mountain barangays should be vaccinated.)
The CHD notes that walk-ins in the urban sites have reduced significantly owing to the fact that a total of 482,001 individuals have already been vaccinated, more than half of the target population of 700,000 needed for herd immunity.
At least 404,311 individuals have been given the first dose while 342,840 individuals have received the second dose.
Ibones said that the drop in walk-ins might mean that the remaining unvaccinated individuals would be those deliberately choosing not to get vaccinated.
“Most likely mao na gyod nang mga dili magpavaccinate. Wala na tay mahimo kay dili ta kapugos. Ang atoa nalang magsige tag inform sa ilaha unsa ka importante ang pagpabakuna,” said Ibones.
(Most likely those are the people who do not want to be vaccinated. We cannot do anything about that because we cannot force them. What we can do is to inform them about the importance of being vaccinated.)
As for the pediatric vaccinations, the city will begin mass inoculation for non-comorbids on November 8, 2021. The vaccination for minors with comorbidities began on October 29, 2021, but only 102 have been inoculated since.
At least 10,173 minors have been registered to the vaccination program while 1,036 are registered minors with comorbidities.
Only Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can be used to inoculate the minors aged 12 to 17 years old.
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