THE two highly urbanized cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue in Cebu may be deescalated to Alert Level 1 status, from Alert Level 2, within this week.This, as the Covid-19 vaccination data from Lapu-Lapu City, particularly for senior citizens, has already been reconciled with those of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC), Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC), said Tuesday, March 22, 2022.Loreche said she was sure that National Task Force deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon would recommend the deescalation of Lapu-Lapu City’s status to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases after they noted during their meeting on the same day that the city had already reached the 70 percent vaccination requirement for both senior citizens and the total eligible population.As of March 22, data from the NVOC showed that Lapu-Lapu City had fully vaccinated 92.52 percent of its total eligible population while it had also vaccinated 71.40 percent of its senior citizens.“Antayin lang po natin ang official announcement. But based on the discussion, kung makikita natin diyan sa numbers, pasadong-pasado na po sila,” said Loreche, who is also chief pathologist of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH 7).(Let’s just wait for the official announcement of the IATF. But based on the discussion, we can see from the numbers that they already passed the vaccination requirement.)As for Mandaue City, Loreche said its data had yet to be reconciled with those of the NVOC although it had already exceeded the vaccination ratio requirement as well.Based on their report on the ground, Mandaue City had fully vaccinated 91.94 percent of its senior citizens, much higher than the NVOC’s data of only 68.34 percent.Loreche said the city would need only about 1.66 percent or fewer than 500 vaccinated senior citizens to be validated to reach the 70 percent requirement and be deescalated from Alert Level 2 to Alert Level 1 status.Under Alert Level 2, some activities are prohibited and establishments allowed to operate can do so only at a maximum of 50 percent indoor venue capacity and 70 percent outdoor venue capacity.Under the less restrictive Alert Level 1 status, however, all private offices and workplaces, including public and private construction sites, would be allowed to operate at full or 100 percent capacity, with public transportation also at full seating capacity.Talisay, MinglanillaOther local government units (LGUs) in Metro Cebu whose status may be deescalated in the coming days are Talisay City and Minglanilla.As of March 21, data from the VVOC showed that Talisay City had fully vaccinated 79.31 percent of its total eligible population against coronavirus disease while it had also vaccinated about 79.30 percent of its senior citizens.Minglanilla town, on the other hand, had also fully vaccinated 73.76 percent of its total eligible population and 81.07 percent of its senior citizens.Loreche noted that while Cordova town had already reached the 75.41 percent in terms of vaccinated senior citizens, it is still far from reaching the vaccination requirement for the eligible population since this was only at 53.16 percent.Other LGUs in Metro Cebu such as Consolacion, City of Naga and Liloan, still have much work to do on their respective vaccination campaigns for their total eligible populations and senior citizens.Consolacion and City of Naga have so far vaccinated only 51.4 percent and 53.39 percent of their senior citizens, respectively, while they have jabbed only 66.26 percent and 68.16 percent of their total eligible populations.The town of Liloan, however, was also still far away from meeting the required vaccination ratios for both senior citizens and total eligible population as it had vaccinated only 52.16 percent and 57.70 percent of these populations, respectively.Data from the NVOC showed that Cebu Province had so far fully vaccinated only 53.11 percent of its total eligible population and only 39.42 percent of its senior citizens.Cebu Province comprises 44 municipalities and six component cities.Terminal jabsWith this, Loreche announced that the Cebu Provincial Government, in coordination with the DOH 7, will put up vaccination sites in both the North and South Bus Terminals soon.“It makes it easy [for those] who are traveling to have just their vaccination while they are waiting maybe for the bus or they are getting off or they are about to board,” said Loreche.In the entire Cebu Island, only Cebu City has so far been deescalated to Alert Level 1.