Cebu aims to vaccinate 3K persons daily at Noah

THE Cebu City Government inaugurated its newest vaccination site at the New Normal Oasis for Adaptation and a Home (Noah) complex at the South Road Properties on Saturday, June 12, 2021.

The complex used to be the City’s largest Covid-19 quarantine facility before it closed on May 31.

Acting Mayor Michael Rama said vaccination at the site will start when the City receives a fresh batch of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) from the Department of Health (DOH) 7.

Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, City Health Department (CHD) officer-in-charge, said they can reach their target of inoculating at least 3,000 individuals daily at the Noah complex as long as vaccines are available.

“The more allocation, the more individuals we can vaccinate,” he said.

Cebu City has been allotted 21,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that recently arrived in the country, but not all will be injected at the Noah complex.

Noah complex manager Jocelyn Pesquera said two City-owned buses will transport individuals scheduled to be vaccinated in the facility.

She said they will soon announce the barangays of residents who will be accommodated there.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr., who graced the event, assured Cebu City will get an equitable share of the Covid-19 vaccines.

Roque said the task now is for Secretary Carlito Galvez, who is the country’s vaccine czar, “to keep Noah very busy.”

“I promise you, we will make sure that Noah Center will be very busy,” he said.

The Cabinet secretary recalled that when he visited the Noah Complex during its inauguration as an isolation facility, he described it as the biggest isolation center outside of Metro Manila.

“It is only through vaccines that this pandemic will end, and I’m happy to know that what used to be the biggest isolation center outside of Manila, should be one of the biggest vaccination centers in the Philippines as well,” he said. (JJL)