CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) said only 16.8 percent of Central Visayas’ total eligible population have so far availed of the first dose of booster shot for COVID-19 vaccine.
Based on the region’s latest tally, only 656,624 first booster doses were administered out of the 3,914,083 fully vaccinated individuals who are eligible for the first round of COVID-19 booster shot.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the VVOC and the chief pathologist at the Department of Health in central Visayas, said this data shows that the region is behind in its booster shot vaccination program, considering the region started the first booster dose last October 2021.
“People are not pressuring themselves [in getting the booster shot] thinking that cases are low so they are safe already,” Loreche said.
Here’s data from the VVOC:
For Cebu City, in particular, only 162,507 individuals have availed of the first booster dose out of the 652,584 eligible individuals, for a coverage of 24.9 percent.
In Mandaue City, 78,830 of the 294,853 target individuals (26.7 percent) got their booster shots while in Lapu-Lapu, only 15.1 percent (50,059 out of the 332,330 target individuals) got jabbed with booster shots.
Moreover, only 0.2 percent, or only 1,470 of the 656,624 individuals eligible for the second dose of booster shots in the region, have received the second dose.
Immunocompromised individuals, or those with existing health conditions, were encouraged to get the second dose of the COVID booster shot.
Among those considered to be immunocompromised are those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), active cancer or malignancy, transplant recipients, undergoing steroid treatment, patients with poor prognosis or bedridden patients, and other conditions of immunodeficiency as certified by a physician.
Health authorities here continue to encourage the public to avail of their booster vaccine for better protection against COVID-19.
Loreche said they have to check yet if there are expiring COVID vaccines in the region.
Meanwhile, the Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) said there was no additional COVID-19 case on Sunday, May 22.
Of the 382 samples tested for coronavirus on Sunday, all yielded negative results.
As of now, the city has 22 active cases of COVID-19.
/bmjo
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