Mandaue City brings vax drive closer to sitio residents

Residents of Zone 3 in Barangay Mantuyong avail of Mandaue City’s sitio-based vaccination drive. | Photo from Mandaue City VOC

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – Wanting to make sure that no one is left out, Mandaue City’s Vaccination Operations Center (VOC) is again bringing its COVID-19 vaccination drive to the different sitios here.

VOC’s sitio-based vaccination campaign started in selected sitios in Barangays Mantuyong, Casili and Labangon. Visits in these areas were made during the third week of March.

“The main goal is everybody should be vaccinated that is why we go to the pinakadown gyud nga level and that is the sitio-based and purok based nga bakuna. We went to one sitio to another just to bring the vaccination,” Levi Doverte, VOC Senior Data Controller and Operations Manager, said.

(The goal is for everyone to be vaccinated that is why we are going down to the sitio level and that is the sitio-based and purok-based vaccination.  We go from one sitio to another to bring the vaccination [closer to the people].)

Mandaue City VOC’s offsite vaccination campaign started last year.  But they are trying to strengthen the program’s implementation this year, Doverte said.

The sitio-based vaccination campaign targets residents who find it difficult to leave their homes to get vaxxed against COVID-19. This is also in addition to the city’s regular vaccination that are held at the different vaccination sites here, he added.

Doverte said it is the City Health Office that is tasked to identify the sitios to be visited. But officials of the city’s 27 barangays can also request for the conduct of offsite vaccination in their respective areas.

As of March 18, Cebu Vaccination Statistics show that 95.55 percent of Mandaue City’s eligible population already received their first dose  of the COVID-19 vaccine while 89.44 are now fully vaccinated.

Doverte said that while they hope to convince more Mandauehanons to get vaxxed, they will not be forced to do so.  Instead, they will try to educate residents of the importance of getting a COVID-19 jab during their sitio visits.

Based on their past sitio visits, some Mandauehanons mentioned of their comorbidities as the most common reason why they refuse to get a jab.  Others use their religion as reason while others just don’t want to get vaxxed.

“Dili ta mamugos, we invite them to be vaccinated, we will explain to them how important vaccination is. Kung magpabakuna sila well and good but as much as possible we try ourselves to convince them to be vaccinated,” he said.

(We do not force the residents, we invite them to get vaccinated, we explain to them how important vaccination is.  If they agreed to get vaccinated, well and good, but as much as possible we try to convince them to be vaccinated.)

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