LGUs told: Don’t turn down walk-in minors at vax centers
Minors line up for vaccination in a vax site in Cebu City. CDN Digital photo | Morexete Marie B. Erram
CEBU CITY, Philippines—To increase Cebu’s COVID-19 immunization coverage rate, local government units here are told not to turn down walk-ins for the pediatric vaccination.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) spokesperson, said accommodating walk-ins would greatly help expedite reaching herd immunity.
“Because we are running with time to be able to vaccinate our people (especially that we have) so many vaccines with us then pwede po kung hindi na masterlist pero andyan na sa vaccination sites at walang schedule, pwede na bakunahan,” explained Loreche.
But she clarified that this does not mean local government units (LGUs) should do away with masterlisting minors age 12 to 17 years old in their respective areas.
“Masterlisting and schedules should be implemented still for (adolescents) 12 to 17 years old. However, should the child and parent walk in into the vaccination site, the vaccination team should not turn them away but rather accommodate,” Loreche said.
Pediatric vaccination in Cebu is now ongoing.
Achieving herd immunity
Based on the latest data from VVOC, a total of 118,057 minors from at least nine localities in Metro Cebu have already signed up to be inoculated.
Loreche said these figures are expected to grow since masterlisting is still going on.
The government is aiming to vaccinate at least 3.5 million people in the entire island of Cebu in order to achieve herd immunity.
The same report from VVOC showed that vaccination coverage rate for the 1st dose stood at approximately 40 percent as of November 8, 2021.
This translates to 1.44 million individuals in Cebu who have received the 1st dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.
For fully vaccinated ones, coverage rate is around 34 percent, which means that 1.25 million people have already completed their inoculation schedule.
/bmjo
READ MORE: Kids vaccinated in Cebu City look forward to going back to F2F classes, playing outside
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