Mandaue City opens 3rd vaccination site in mall

THE third vaccination site of Mandaue City that can cater every day up to 400 individuals who want to avail themselves of Covid-19 vaccine has opened in Pacific Mall in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia on Tuesday, June 1, 2021.

Last week, Mayor Jonas Cortes announced that the City Government would tap malls and used portions of their spaces as vaccination sites.

Mall operators allowing vaccinations could generate income for them as some of the people shop after their inoculation.

August Lizer Malate, head of Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said they officially opened the vaccination site located on the third and fourth floors of Pacific Mall.

Four vaccination teams were deployed to Pacific Mall, the third vaccination site managed by the Mandaue City Vaccination Operations Center.

Malate said Pacific Mall is a suitable vaccination site as it has a public transportation terminal, it is accessible as it is located near the national highway, and it is spacious.

He said they will open more vaccination sites and they are still preparing the logistics, personnel, and scheduling of the vaccination recipients.

Malate said they are still hiring more vaccination personnel and they also welcome volunteers who wish to help the vaccination program of the city.

Also, he said that they will still not cater walk-ins in all the vaccination sites, including the ones at Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex and University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu Mandaue (UCLM) campus.

However, Malate said they will register the city residents who attempt to walk in the vaccination sites to the city’s master list so that they will be given a schedule for their vaccination.

He said the reason they will not accommodate walk-ins because they have allocated a certain amount of vaccine doses in every vaccination site for the scheduled individuals.

He said it would be unfair for those who went through the process of registering and waiting for their turn to get vaccinated.

On June 1, 2021, Ernie Manatad, head of Vaccine Board and Association of Barangay Council president, said 1,575 Mandaue City residents were vaccinated—366 in UCLM; 730 in the sports complex; 258 in Pacific Mall; and 221 in IEC Convention Center Cebu.

As of May 31, 2021, Malate said around 9,000 individuals have received their first dose, while 5,000 individuals have completed their second and final dose.

Mandaue City has to inoculate 295,000 individuals as these consist 70 percent of the city’s population that must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

Pfizer vax consumption

The Department of Health (DOH) 7, said on Tuesday, June 1, that Central Visayas’ consumption rate of Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine currently sits at 69.27 percent.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH 7 spokesperson, said that as of May 31, a total of 10,131 individuals in Cebu had been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine for their first dose.

To recall, the DOH 7 was given a total of 29,250 doses of Pfizer vaccines that will be administered as first and second doses for a total of 14,625 individuals.

Because of the stringent storage requirements for the vaccine, the DOH 7 had earlier said that the Pfizer vaccines are only for the registered individuals in Cebu, and the vaccination will be done in the vaccination sites of Project Balik Buhay (PBB), a private-public partnership that aims to help the government and the private sector amid the pandemic.

As of May 31, a total of 861 healthcare workers; 2,977 senior citizens, and 6,293 individuals with comorbidities had been inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine, healthcare experts said, requires a storage of -70 to -80 centigrade ultra low freezer for storage.

Meanwhile, 77.4 percent (102,338) of the 132,286 master-listed medical workers in Central Visayas had been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Of the 102,338 vaccinated healthcare workers, 60,792 have fully been vaccinated after receiving the second dose.

As to vaccination of senior citizens, the government had finished vaccinating 8,991 senior citizens, while 53,625 other senior citizens are awaiting for their second dose, as of May 31.

These figures, however, will change as the DOH 7 still has to start the vaccination for the 486,828 remaining master-listed senior citizens.

Of the 122,618 individuals with comorbidities pre-listed for vaccination, 31,877 were already vaccinated with the first dose, while 2,215 have also received their second dose.

The entire Central Visayas is currently under modified general community quarantine status (the lowest form of community quarantine status) until June 30.

Central Visayas’ remaining active Covid-19 cases were at 3,801 as of May 31.

Occupancy rate

The Cebu City Government recorded the lowest critical care occupancy rate and death rate in the month of May.

City Councilor Joel Garganera said that by the end of May, the city’s critical care occupancy rate dropped to 16.9 percent as there were only 156 occupied beds out of the 923 beds allocated to Covid-19 patients in 15 public and private hospitals.

Based on the Cebu City EOC records, 12 city residents succumbed to complications caused by Covid-19 last May, the lowest in the first five months of 2021.

Cebu City recorded just six new Covid-19 cases on May 31. The active cases in the city dropped to 402 on the same day, and these individuals are isolated in quarantine centers, hotels accredited as isolation facilities and hospitals.

The EOC recorded an individual who tested positive for Covid-19 even though he had been fully vaccinated.

Garganera explained that an individual who is fully vaccinated could still contract the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, but his immune system is now fortified to withstand the serious effects of Covid-19.

He said the vaccinated individual has been quarantined since last week.

By the end of May, the 14th month since Covid-19 pandemic has arrived in Cebu City, the City health authorities recorded a total of 24,280 cases—23,014 recoveries, 402 active cases and 864 deaths. (KFD, WBS, PAC / KAL)