Cebu City to document unvaccinated individuals in barangays

Minors line up for vaccination in a vax site in Cebu City. The DILG has recently instructed LGUs to start listing unvaccinated individuals.  CDN Digital photo | Morexete Marie B. Erram

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City will be listing the individuals who are unvaccinated in the barangays in compliance with the Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) directive for barangays to submit a list of unvaccinated individuals.

Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya has announced on January 12, 2022, that this requirement is part of the order for the implementation of restricting the mobility of people who have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC, said that the city will comply with the directive after meeting with barangay chiefs last Wednesday.

Garganera notes that the city government has been gathering data on unvaccinated individuals in the barangays as early as October 2021, so the city has somewhat begun the task.

“There’s really nothing wrong nga mokuha tag data kung kinsay nabakunahan ug kinsay wala pa. Tag-as kaayo og vaccination ang ubang lugar pero dili reflective sa actual kay naay mga residents nga nagpuyo dinha pero not necessarily nagparegister ana nga address,” said Garganera.

The documenting of individuals should provide the city with an overview of the actual rate of vaccination and whether a barangay has really reached the desired herd immunity.

The barangay health centers will be tasked to handle the listing of unvaccinated individuals.

73% fully vaccinated

In the most recent records of the CoViD Vaccination Storm Rollout Program (CVSRP), at least 73 percent of the adult population in Cebu City has been fully vaccinated.

The Cebu City Health Department (CHD) has revealed that the overall vaccinated individuals for both first and second doses have reached 747,512 as of January 13, 2022.

Of these, a total of 526,044 individuals are already fully vaccinated, reaching 73 percent of the total target adult population of the city.

CHD head, Doctor Jeffrey Ibones, recently said that they have seen the eagerness of city residents to get vaccinated over the past days after Typhoon Odette struck.

Most of these individuals are due for a second dose, which is why the numbers of fully vaccinated individuals have been rising in the past few days.

CHD noted that 131,721 individuals missed their second dose, the majority of these were due to interruption of the vaccination program post-typhoon.

Ibones urged those who missed their schedules to get their second dose soon at either the site they received their first dose or at any regular or pop-up vaccination site accessible to them.

The CHD also revealed that there are now 14,574 booster shots distributed to registered individuals out of 31,880.     /rcg

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