LAPU-LAPU City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan has appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to deescalate the city’s status from Alert Level 2 to Alert Level 1, saying the city has already achieved the required vaccination ratio for senior citizens.Chan made the appeal before Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and National Task Force Against Covid-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio Dizon during the Coordinated Operations To Defeat Epidemic (Code) visit dubbed “Bida Tungo sa New Normal” at Jpark Island Resort and Waterpark in Barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu City on Friday, March 18, 2022.As of March 17, data from the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center showed that Lapu-Lapu City had already vaccinated 72.89 percent of its 31,322 projected senior population.Chan said they were able to exceed the 68 vaccination ratio requirement for senior citizens, which is computed by dividing 80 percent of the total population of senior citizens by 85 percent of the total eligible population.The updated vaccination ratio, according to Chan, was reached after the city encoded the 60,000 backlog of reports on vaccinated people from January to March this year.Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said they were just waiting for the National Vaccination Operations Center to make a final validation.Duque said hopefully by Monday, they will have more certainty to determine whether that particular metric has been complied with.“But I have no doubt that given the dynamism of the leadership of this progressive city of Lapu-Lapu, I have no doubt whatsoever that eventually, you will be able to reach also these vital four metrics,” for the city to fully open up the capacities of its various establishments, said Duque.In Central Visayas, only Cebu City and Siquijor have so far been deescalated to Alert Level 1. The rest of the region is under Alert Level 2.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 Alert Level 1, all private offices and workplaces, including public and private construction sites, can operate at full or 100 percent capacity, with public transportation also at full seating capacity.Local government units (LGUs) must maintain low coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases and less than 50 percent healthcare capacity utilization rates while also fully vaccinating 70 percent of their respective total eligible populations along with 68 percent of their senior citizens in order to be deescalated to Alert Level 1.In Metro Cebu, other LGUs that reached the required vaccination ratio for senior citizens include Mandaue City with 91.80 percent, Talisay City with 78.67 percent, Minglanilla with 80.94 percent and Cordova with 75.41 percent.National targetDuring his visit, Duque appealed to local officials and representatives to really make sure that the war against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic is won.While the country has already fully vaccinated about 65 million individuals, Duque stressed that they are not yet close to the national target of 90 million Filipinos to vaccinate by the end of the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.He said LGUs must do their share and contribute to the national government’s war against the pandemic, particularly in vaccinating senior citizens.“What the national can do will only depend on what the local can do,” he said.Dizon said 85 percent of the hospitalizations due to the Omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 were of unvaccinated individuals while 90 percent of deaths due to Covid-19 in the country were of unvaccinated individuals.Duque and Dizon also noted the astronomical cases in Hong Kong and that majority of the deaths there were of senior citizens. They said only around 30 percent was reportedly vaccinated in this age group.With this, they urged everyone to help their respective LGUs to ramp up their vaccination against Covid-19, particularly of the senior citizens, to achieve herd immunity.According to the Associated Press, more than 4,000 people have died in Hong Kong this year alone as an outbreak caused hospitals and morgues to overflow.