Another vaccination site for minors opens in Cebu City on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. CDN Digital photo | Mae Fhel Gom-os
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Central Visayas is aiming to inoculate around 1.3 million individuals in the upcoming National Vaccination Days.
Officials from the Department of Health in the region (DOH-7) and local governments here are preparing for the three-day nationwide vaccination drive.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH-7 chief pathologist and spokesperson of Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC), said both private and public sectors are planning to administer first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at a rate of 442,000 individuals per day.
“We’re hoping and planning to vaccinate 1,328,478 individuals here in Central Visayas for the National Vaccination Days,” Loreche said in a virtual briefer on Thursday, November 25.
Loreche also said DOH-7 is ramping up recruitments of vaccinators for the upcoming activity.
Several local governments here in Cebu, for their part, have also started their preparations for the National Vaccination Days.
The Capitol has already issued a memorandum, announcing that they will be rewarding two sacks of rice and a month’s supply of Vitamin C to every newly vaccinated individual from November 29 to December 1.
Other local government units (LGUs), like Naga City, dangled cash incentives to entice more people in getting the jab.
The government’s massive vaccination drive from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 aims to inoculate 15 million Filipinos against the deadly respiratory disease in three days.
Under Proclamation No. 1253, employees and workers of the government and private sector who will participate in the vaccination drive shall not be considered absent from their work, as long as they present their proof of vaccination to their employers.
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered local government units to mobilize all resources, stakeholders, health human resources, and constituents.
The President also ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Health (DOH) to lead the observance of the “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” national COVID-19 vaccination days.
Data from DOH-7 showed that as of November 21, close to two million people in Central Visayas have already received the first dose of the vaccine while more than 1.7 million got their 2nd dose. /rcg
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