52K Sinovac doses arrive for C. Visayas

THE Department of Health (DOH) 7 received a total of 52,800 additional doses of CoronaVac, the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech Ltd., on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.

DOH 7 spokesperson Mary Jean Loreche said these will be allocated to the vaccination programs of local government units (LGUs) and will be distributed based on the masterlist submitted by the LGUs.

Central Visayas has now received a total of 449,010 doses of mixed Covid-19 vaccines since the region started its vaccination program in March.

Majority of the doses were from Sinovac (257,760) followed by AstraZeneca (162,000) and Pfizer-BioNtech (29,500).

Critical care

Meanwhile, the critical care utilization rate (CCUR) for private hospitals in Cebu has been continuously improving. It was only 12.9 percent as of May 16, Loreche said.

A lower than 60 percent CCUR is considered safe.

The current CCUR, she said, serves as a “very good reflection” of Cebu’s case control management.

Loreche said of the 862 beds allocated for Covid-19 patients in private hospitals in Cebu, only 111 are currently occupied by admitted patients.

Of the number, 38 are asymptomatic to mild symptomatic, 65 are moderate to severe cases, and eight patients are in the intensive care unit.

“We pray that even if we have a more relaxed community quarantine status (modified general community quarantine status), our cases will not increase,” Loreche said in Cebuano.

The latest DOH 7 case bulletin shows the following active cases in Cebu City (518), Cebu Province (490), Lapu-Lapu City (241), and Mandaue City (220).

Loreche also reported that as of May 17, a total of 90,825 healthcare workers or 68.1 percent of the 133,454 total eligible population under priority A1 or healthcare workers masterlisted as of May 11 have been inoculated against Covid-19.

Of the number, 43,902 have already received their second dose or have completed their vaccination.

A total of 24,176 senior citizens have also gotten their first dose under the LGU vaccination program, while 2,006 others got their doses through the Project Balik Buhay (PBB) vaccination initiative.

Loreche said 111 individuals (60 in Cebu City and 51 under the PBB vaccination initiative) were vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine during the vaccination’s rollout on Monday, May 17.

Lawyers

Some 80 members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter were also vaccinated against the Covid-19 on Tuesday, May 18.

Michelle Mendez-Palmares, IBP Cebu City chapter president, said they belonged to the second and third batches of chapter members who registered under priority categories A1, A2, and A3 (healthcare workers, senior citizens, and individulas with co-morbidities).

They were given the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine.

She said the lawyers’ vaccination in Cebu City is under the Project Balik Buhay initiative.

About 300 lawyers under category A4 (frontline workers in essential sectors) also registered for vaccination, Palmares said.

Loreche said though the DOH 7 logged three serious cases of adverse events following immunization (AEFIs), there has been no direct link to the vaccine for the death of individuals after being vaccinated.

“We cannot link to vaccination primarily because although it happened two to three days post-vaccination, it does not have clear linkage to the vaccine,” she said.

The first reported serious AEFI case was a resident from Talisay City who was known to have uncontrolled or untreated asthma.

The second reported serious AEFI case was a patient who died in one of the private hospitals in Cebu whose cause of death was sudden cardiac death.

The third reported serious AEFI case was a frontliner in Bohol.

Meanwhile, the Mandaue City Vaccine Board is calling on healthcare workers, with or without experience, to be part of the city’s vaccination team as the City opened its second vaccination post at the University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu Mandaue branch (UCLM) on May 18.

August Lizer Malate, head of the City’s Emergency Operations Center for Covid-19 response, said applications may be sent to the Mandaue City Health Office.

The City aims to vaccinate more than 1,000 individuals in its two vaccination posts which includes the Mandaue City Sports Complex.

National tally

About 500,000 more doses of Sinovac will be delivered to the Philippines on Thursday, May 20, said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.

Galvez also said the country logged the highest number of jabs done per day at 120,529, on May 15, noting that the average number of vaccines administered before was only 30,000 per day.

This brought the total number of doses administered as of May 17 to 3,114,847, said Galvez.

The Philippines currently has 3,485 vaccination sites. More than 3.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were delivered to different areas in the country for May 2021.

The vaccines delivered in May included 30,000 Sputnik V; 1,500,000 Sinovac, 2,030,400 AstraZeneca from Covax, and 193,050 Pfizer.

The areas being focused now for vaccination are the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus area, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao. (KFD, SunStar Philippines)