3,000-plus Lapu vaccinees no-show for second dose

OVER 3,000 individuals in Lapu-Lapu City who had received their first dose did not return for their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

Some of them traveled to other places in the country, while others were too busy with their work, said Vaccination Operations Center deputy officer James Sayson on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021.

The vaccine brands administered to these vaccinees were Sinovac and AstraZeneca. Some of these vaccinees were vaccinated last July and August.

Sayson said Lapu-Lapu City’s rate of fully vaccinated individuals is still at 47 percent.

Cebu City problem

In Cebu City, there are around 200 individuals who have yet to receive their second dose of Sputnik V, a Russian Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, head of the Cebu City Health Department (CHD), said he did not know the reasons why these individuals did not show up for the administration of the second dose.

Fresh supplies of Sputnik V arrived in Cebu City in the last week of September.

Ibones said that until now they are waiting for these vaccinees to appear at their vaccination sites to complete their vaccination against Covid-19. The CHD still has the Sputnik V vials in its custody.

He said they encountered no problem in administering other vaccine brands to vaccinees scheduled for the second dose as most of the vaccinees showed up.

As to the vaccination of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) personnel, only 41 of the over 1,080 police officers remain unvaccinated. Some of these unvaccinated officers are pregnant, while others are ill.

Fresh supplies

Central Visayas received almost one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021 with the health department hoping it would address vaccine hesitancy in the region.

Department of Health (DOH) 7 Director Jaime Bernadas said the arrival of the 994,500 doses of the vaccines was the biggest single delivery of Pfizer vaccines to Region 7.

The donation was made by the U.S. Government and the USAID through the COVAX facility.

Bernadas lauded the joint efforts from stakeholders to receive the vaccine which needs to be placed in a storage in an ultra-low temperature freezer despite the looming weather disturbance caused by Tropical Depression Lannie.

He said the senior citizens group will benefit from the delivery of this type of vaccine.

Bernadas also urged local governments to conduct strategic house-to-house vaccination to senior citizens who are unable to go to sites due to their health condition.

Mobile teams

Some LGUs, he said, already deployed mobile vaccination teams to move around but it is not happening all over, only from selected LGUs.

He said this is because some LGUs have some limitations in terms of personnel but as much as possible, DOH 7 is encouraging LGUs to create these types of teams to strategize and cover more senior citizens who are unable to move around and go to vaccination sites.

Of the 595,058 eligible priority for senior citizens, only 168,297 or 28.3 percent were vaccinated for the first dose while 220,034 or 37 percent were vaccinated for the second dose.

Bernadas said mortality in the region was high for the past two months with the Delta variant. (GCM, PAC / KAL, JOB)