150K seniors in CV need jab to make it to Alert Level 1 status

THE Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH 7) is targeting to vaccinate at least 150,000 senior citizens during the fourth round of the National Vaccination Days (NVD) so that the region can be placed under Alert Level 1 status.Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH 7 chief pathologist and spokesperson of the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC), said the 150,000 senior citizens will help them reach the target of 80 percent vaccination ratio for seniors in all local government units (LGUs) in the region.Loreche said they want to meet the target during the fourth NVD from March 10 to March 12, 2022 in order for the entire region to be placed under Alert Level 1 status or the new normal.Under Alert Level 1, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) said there will no longer be any restriction in terms of indoor and outdoor capacities.Intrazonal and interzonal travel will also be allowed in areas under Alert Level 1 status without regard to age and comorbidities, according to the DOH.“All establishments, persons or activities are allowed to operate, work or be undertaken at full on-site or venue/seating capacity provided it is consistent with minimum public health standards; provided further, that face-to-face classes for basic education shall be subject to prior approval of the Office of the President,” the DOH said in its website.For the DOH 7 to meet its target, Cebu Province will have to vaccinate 84,034 eligible senior citizens, the highest among the provinces and highly urbanized cities in the region as of February 22.Negros Oriental has to vaccinate 35,511 senior citizens while Bohol’s target is around 23,640.The highly urbanized cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu aim to vaccinate 537 and 7,076 senior citizens, respectively.Loreche said Siquijor Province already reached 80 percent of their eligible population of senior citizens and was already placed under the new normal since March 1.She said Cebu City has not set a target for senior citizens since they are still waiting for data to be validated by the national VOC.Loreche said, though, that the Cebu City Government may still vaccinate senior citizens.Data from the VVOC showed that about 134,544 senior citizens in Metro Cebu have already been fully vaccinated, which is about 51.92 percent of the 259,142 senior citizen population in Metro Cebu.Cebu City has the highest vaccination rate among the nine Metro Cebu LGUs with 60.36 percent or 58,211 fully vaccinated senior citizens out of around 96,447 seniors.Mandaue City came second with 57.67 percent or 21,865 seniors out of 37,915 senior citizens.Lapu-Lapu City has so far vaccinated 37.68 percent or 16,075 seniors out of the 42,665 population.Meanwhile, the cities of Talisay and Naga have vaccinated 50.26 percent or 11,961 and 47.08 percent or 5,695 senior citizens, respectively.Talisay City has 23,796 senior citizens while the City of Naga has 12,097.The towns of Minglanilla and Consolacion were able to vaccinate 44.03 percent or 6,083 seniors and 42.6 percent or 5,858 senior citizens, respectively.Minglanilla town has a population of around 13,815 senior citizens while Consolacion has 13,751.The towns of Cordova and Liloan have reached 45.17 percent or 2,820 seniors and 48.14 or 5,976 vaccinated senior citizens, respectively.Cordova has a population of 6,243 senior citizens while Liloan town has 12,413.As part of their strategy to be placed under the new normal, Loreche said they will be extracting the number of fully vaccinated senior citizens from other sub-group categories in order to achieve the 80 percent of the eligible population of the elderly in the region.Loreche cited herself as an example of senior citizens being included in other groups, such as a medical frontliner who belongs to A1 Priority Group in her case.“It’s possible that the numbers are not real because there are senior citizens who are in the list of individuals to be vaccinated but are already dead,” she added.Loreche said it would be up to the IATF or the DOH if they would revert Metro Cebu to Alert Level 1 status first while other LGUs in Cebu Province remain at Level 2.“Pwede naman talaga na siya yung una mong i-alert level 1 (It’s possible to place Metro Cebu under Alert Level 1 ahead of the other LGUs). But then our mindset again really is we are one island,” she said, adding that confusion may also arise if the LGUs have different level status.With this, Loreche said there is a need to achieve the 80 percent vaccination ratio for senior citizens in the entire province.