LESS than 1,000 senior citizens were vaccinated against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Central Visayas on the first day of the fourth round of the National Vaccination Days (NVD).Only 980 senior citizens were vaccinated for primary doses and booster shots on Thursday, Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, chief pathologist of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH 7) and spokesperson of the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC), disclosed Friday, March 11, 2022.This is just 0.7 percent or way below the target of 139,647 senior citizens set for the region for the three-day vaccination drive.Among the four provinces in the region, Cebu had the highest number of vaccinated seniors at 471.However, this is just 0.62 percent of Cebu Province’s 76,421 target number of senior citizens to vaccinate, the biggest number in the region.Bohol and Negros Oriental vaccinated 194 and 22 senior citizens of their respective targets of 23,640 and 35,511.Siquijor vaccinated 15 seniors although it did not set any target since it had already vaccinated 68 percent of its eligible population of senior citizens and was already placed under the new normal or Alert Level 1 since March 1.Cebu City, on the other hand, vaccinated 183 seniors with no target as well since it is waiting for data reconciliation by the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC).The two other highly urbanized cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue vaccinated 56 and 39 senior citizens during the first day of the NVD, respectively.Lapu-Lapu City has to vaccinate 3,538 seniors while Mandaue City has a target of 537 senior citizens for the three-day vaccination drive.But with regard to the overall turnout from all sub-group categories, Central Visayas was able to vaccinate 34,229 individuals or 15.9 percent of the 215,486 total target.Cebu still vaccinated the most number of individuals among the provinces and three highly urbanized cities with a total of 15,768 vaccinated individuals.Hoping for Level 1Despite the low number of vaccinated senior citizens, Loreche said they are still hoping that the entire Central Visayas will be placed under Alert Level 1 starting March 16.“[We are] hoping,” she said, although she has no idea if the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will reconsider the data.Local government units (LGUs) should each vaccinate 68 percent of their eligible senior citizens to be placed under Alert Level 1.As of March 6, data from the VVOC showed that Metro Cebu was able to vaccinate 65.89 percent of the 204,326 total population of senior citizens.Cebu City was already at 66.17 percent vaccination from a population of 88,000 senior citizens.The highly urbanized city of Mandaue and Talisay City were already at 91.33 percent and 77.13 percent from 23,956 population of seniors and 15,520, respectively.The towns of Cordova and Minglanilla were also at 72.80 percent and 80.26 percent, respectively.Cordova has a population of 3,875 seniors while Minglanilla has 7,582.The cities of Naga and Lapu-Lapu, on the other hand, were still at 52.13 percent and 51.39 percent vaccination of their respective populations of 10,944 and 31,322 senior citizens.The towns of Consolacion and Liloan were also at 50.86 percent and 51.67 percent vaccination of their respective populations of 11,527 and 11,600 senior citizens.Loreche said it would be up to the IATF if it would revert Metro Cebu to Alert Level 1 status first while other local government units in Cebu Province remain at Level 2.The first round of the NVD was held from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3, 2021.The second round was held on Dec. 15 to 17, but in some areas expected to be hit by Typhoon Odette (Rai) on Dec. 16, the drive was moved to Dec. 20-22.The third round was held on Feb. 10 to 11, 2022.