In Region 7, only 44k of 600k seniors so far jabbed with COVID vaccine
A senior citizen gets her jab of the COVID-19 vaccine. | CDN Digital photo / Mary Rose Sagarino
CEBU CITY, Philippines – More than 500,000 senior citizens in Central Visayas are yet to receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines as of May 23.
Recent data from the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) showed that out of the 604,444 elderlies in the region who registered for the vaccine rollout, only 44,120 were inoculated so far.
This translates to an immunization coverage rate of 7.3 percent.
Out of the 44,120 seniors injected with the COVID-19 vaccine, only 5,079 managed to complete their inoculation schedule as of May 23. The remaining 39,041 are yet to receive their second dose.
“Kuwang pa kaayo. Daghan pa ta ug A2 nga bakunahan,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7).
(Only a few [senior citizens were vaccinated]. We still have a lot of A2 to be inoculated.)
Senior citizens are classified as A2 under the Philippine National Deployment Plan for COVID-19 vaccines.
Currently, vaccine rollout in various localities here in Central Visayas is intended for A1 (medical frontliners), A2 (senior citizens), and A3 (individuals with co-morbidities).
Based on the same report from VVOC, only 56, 860 individuals qualified from all three categories have completed their COVID-19 inoculation schedules.
For the A1 subgroup, 50,272 already received their second dose while 45,868 are yet to be administered as of May 23.
The region has 131,781 medical frontliners qualified to get the vaccines for free.
On the other hand, there are 65,537 individuals with co-morbidities in Central Visayas who have successfully registered for the vaccine rollout, and 16,168 have been injected with the first dose as of May 23.
There are 1,509 people under A3 who already got their second dose.
Based on the 2015 Census, Central Visayas has a population of approximately 7.4 million. /dcb
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