Cebu City Health Department to add more vax sites in mountain barangays

Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, Cebu City Health Department chief, says that they plan to expand their pop-up vaccination sites in mountain barangays in the city. | CDN Digital file photo (Vhenna Marie Mantilla)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Health Department (CHD) intends to expand pop-up vaccination sites in mountain barangays in order to address the low turnout of individuals getting COVID-19 shots.

“Mag meeting mi karon tan-awon lang sa nato kung pila, kung mada nato og more than five (pop-up vaccination sites) ato ng buhaton para ato sila makuha, ” said Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, the officer-in-charge of the CHD.

(We will have a meeting now about how many we can handle, if we can handle more than five [pop-up vaccination sites], then that is what we will do so that we can get them.)

This, after they have yet to achieve a high percentage of vaccinated population despite adequate supply of vaccines. This percentage continues to lag behind the vaccine rate of urban barangays, where at least 80 percent of the population have been jabbed.

“But didto man gud sa mountain, ubay-ubay pa ang wa pa gyud kaabot og 70 percent, less than 60 pa gyud. Mao na atong i-prioritize,” Ibones said.

(But there in the mountains, there are still many [who have not yet been vaccinated] who have not yet achieved 70 percent, they are still less than 60 percent. So that is wht we will prioritize.)

Ibones, however, clarified that the low percentage might not be as concerning as it would seem since the population density in mountain barangays was much lower than city barangays.

“Like sample pananglitan, naay isa ka barangay iyahang qualified mabakunahan is 1500 unya 500 lng (ang mabakunahan) below 50 percent siya. Di parihas diri sa syudad below 50 percent is dako na gyud kay naay barangays more than 5,000 population. Na’y uban 10,000 or uban gani 20,000,” Ibones said.

(Like for example, there is a barangay with 1,500 residents who are qualified to be vaccinated, and yet only 500 (have been vaccinated) and that is below 50 percent. It is not the same as that in the city where there are barangays with more than 5,000 population. There are other with 10,000 or there are even 20,000 [population].) 

Furthermore, he said that one of the reasons for the sluggish vaccine rate in the hinterlands could be attributed to vaccination sites being far away from people’s residences.

“Una, Ilaha tingali gilay-on sa atong mga vax site pud noh. Ato nang gi huna-huna pero nangadto man gyud ta og baranggay. Ang uban gamay gyud dili gyud sila ing ana ka busy compared diri sa ubos sa urban area,” said Ibones.

(One, perhaps the vax site is far from their homes. That is what we were thinking when we went to the barangays. The others are just a small one and they are not that busy compared to the urban area.)

To achieve a significant shift from this low turnout, he urged barangay officials to scale up their efforts and encourage their constituents to get their shots.

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