THE Department of Health (DOH) 7 received an additional allocation of 20,800 doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday morning, June 23, 2021.
This new batch is an addition to the 783,710 total doses of various brands of Covid-19 vaccines that have been delivered to Central Visayas as of June 10.
Dr. Van Philip Baton, DOH 7 medical program coordinator for infectious diseases, said this new batch of Sinovac doses will be allocated for areas in Metro Cebu.
He said they have initially delivered 5,000 doses to Cebu City and 4,000 doses to Talisay City.
The vaccines can be used in inoculating the priority group A4 (essential and economic workers), and the residents of Cebu City who belong to the A4 category will start to receive their jabs on Thursday, June 24.
Cebu City Health Department officer in charge Jeffrey Ibones said the workers must wait for their schedule as there are many individuals who belong to category A4.
Management Information and Computer Services officer in charge Richter Castañares said that, 55,373 individuals had been registered under category A4, as of Wednesday afternoon, June 23.
City Councilor David Tumulak, one of the vaccination cluster heads, said all the vaccination sites in the city will open again on June 24—University of Cebu (UC) Banilad Campus, UC Senior High School Private Campus, Robinsons Galleria, SM Seaside City Cebu, and the New Normal Oasis for Adaptation and a Home (Noah) Complex.
The City temporarily closed all the vaccination sites on June 23 after it ran out of vaccine supply.
In Mandaue City, the City only had more than 700 Covid-19 vaccine doses as of June 23.
Vaccine Board chairman Ernie Manatad said they will only open the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex vaccination site on June 24, to administer the remaining doses.
Also, Manatad said that they still accept walk-in individuals who would like to be vaccinated, including persons who partially completed their online registration.
Despite repeatedly announcing that walk-ins are prohibited, there were individuals who insisted on getting vaccinated even if they were unregistered or if they were registered, they showed up not on their designated schedule.
Manatad said they do not refuse to accommodate walk-ins although as long as these individuals are willing to wait for vacant slots in the vaccination site.
He made this statement after the DOH 7 announced that the local government units should not discourage walk-ins by refusing them.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH 7 chief pathologist, said the total vaccine doses administered in Cebu as of Tuesday, June 22, had reached 320,859—237,541 recipients for the first dose and 83,318 recipients for the second dose.
Loreche relayed the numbers during her daily Visayas Covid-19 Vaccination Operating Center (VVOC) briefing on Wednesday. The Cebu vaccination statistics were both taken from private and public sector vaccination sites in what the VVOC labeled as “One Cebu,” which is composed of Cebu Province and the three highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, she said.
Loreche also said that as of June 22, the government had already vaccinated with first dose about 88.3 percent of the 131,989 total number of healthcare workers who registered themselves for vaccination.
Of the 116,547 healthcare workers vaccinated with the first dose, 79,831 of them were fully vaccinated after receiving the second dose.
Moreover, a total of 549,444 senior citizens was pre-listed as eligible for vaccination against Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Loreche said 100,859 (18.4 percent) of the pre-listed senior citizens had already received their first dose, while 25,407 (25.2 percent) of them had been vaccinated with the second dose, as of June 22.
“We are calling upon our senior citizens and everybody else if you belong to the eligible population please have yourself masterlisted and be vaccinated,” she said.
The government already vaccinated 115,933 or 68.7 percent of the 168,784 individuals with comorbidities who registered for vaccination in Central Visayas, while 16,328 of the registered individuals with comorbidities (14.1 percent) already received their second dose.
Persons with comorbidities are individuals who may have other diseases such as asthma, hypertension or high blood pressure, diabetes, auto-immune disorders, those diagnosed with HIV aids, or those who underwent surgical operations among others.
Moreover, Loreche reported that Central Visayas currently has a Pfizer vaccine consumption rate of 39 percent or have rolled out 46,713 doses of the 119,925 allocated doses for healthcare workers, senior citizens, and individuals with comorbidities. (WBS, JJL, KFD)