Dr. Dominga Obenza, Mandaue City Health officer
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Mandaue City is hoping that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) can rectify the data of Mandaue City’s vaccination rate of senior citizens so that it can be downgraded to Alert Level 1 status.
Earlier, the city sent a letter of clarification to the IATF regarding the city’s vaccination rate of its seniors.
Dr. Dominga Obenza, the city health officer, said they really anticipated being placed under Alert Level 1 as they have already reached the target vaccination rate for senior citizens which is among the criteria of the IATF in downgrading the LGU to Alert Level 1 status.
“Nag anticipate baya then malipay baya ta no not for us but the whole of Mandaue ba nga ma Alert Level 1 ta kay ma full, wala nay limitation (capacity) sa atoang mga establishment,” said Obenza.
Under Alert Level 1, indoor and outdoor venues are allowed at full capacity and everyone can have intrazonal and interzonal travels regardless of age and comorbidities.
In Cebu, only Cebu City was placed under Alert Level 1 from March 16 to March 31. The rest remain under Alert Level 2 status.
Obenza said the city has already vaccinated about 90 percent of the total population of senior citizens. Obenza said the city has close to 24,000 seniors, 22,108 of whom have already received their first dose while 21,930 were fully vaccinated.
Obenza added that the city has a low utilization rate, has a very high vaccination rate of the total target population, and only has a few active COVID-19 cases.
Based on the data from the Cebu Vaccination Statistics as of March 15, Mandaue City has the highest vaccination rate for both first and second doses. Some 95.18 percent of Mandaue’s eligible population has already received their first dose while 88.95 percent are fully vaccinated.
As of March 15, based on DOH-7’s data Mandaue City only has 55 active COVID-19 cases. Obenza added that it’s been a while that they did not record COVID-19 deaths.
“We are really anticipating nga we will be given an Alert Level 1 syempre na disappointed a bit considering nga we have enough (data) to prove that we are worthy to be given Alert Level 1, hopefully ma rectify soonest, we will be appreciative, basta kita we have helped protect sa constituents sa city” Obenza added.
Mayor Jonas Cortes for his part said they will be waiting for the response of the IATF.
Obenza said right now, they will continue with the city’s vaccination program. /rcg
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