In Lapu-Lapu City, health officials there said the number of individuals who got vaccinated against Covid-19 has been decreasing since the fourth quarter of last year.
Mae Cheryll Tepait, a staff member of the Lapu-Lapu City Vaccination Operation Center and is in charge of vaccination at the City Health Office, told SunStar Cebu Thursday, March 2, 2023, that less than 100 individuals per day have been inoculated against Covid-19 since then.
Tepait said this may be due to the low number of active cases in the city with only five currently reported to them as of Wednesday, March 1.
Despite that, Tepait said they still continue their vaccination in barangay health centers as well as in their one remaining vaccination site in Mactan Newtown.
Data from the Vaccination Operations Reporting System (VORS) of the Department of Health 7 showed that about 124 percent or 402,747 eligible individuals of the city’s total target population were vaccinated with the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine as of Jan. 31 this year .
The City Health Office has a target of around 323,900 eligible population to vaccinate.
For the second dose, the City had vaccinated about 120 percent or 388,363 individuals.
As to the booster doses, only 22 percent or 8,712 individuals were given the first booster dose and only 10 percent or 9,490 individuals for the second booster dose.
Tepait said other eligible individuals may have been vaccinated in other areas, which resulted in the low turnout on the inoculation of the first booster dose.
But she emphasized that the low turnout for the second booster dose may be due to the reason that only workers in frontline health services, senior citizens, adults with comorbidities have been allowed for the inoculation
In Mandaue City, only one vaccination site remains operational while health officials tried to get more people vaccinated by conducting house-to-house vaccinations in the city’s 27 barangays.
Dr. Dominga Obenza, head of the Mandaue City Health Office (MCHO), said last Wednesday that their vaccination site at the Pacific Mall Mandaue in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia remains operational after the city started shutting down some of its major vaccination sites in June last year.
Dr. Debra Maria Catulong, medical officer III of the MCHO, said the number of vaccines, strategic locations and accessibility were among the reasons they decided to closure the other sites.
Before the closure, Mandaue City had five vaccination sites then located at the University of Cebu-Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue campus, J Centre Mall, Insular Square, Parkmall Mandaue and the Pacific Mall.
Catulong added that they noticed a decrease in vaccination turnouts from 6,000 to only 400 to 800 individuals a day, which paved the way for them to launch house-to-house vaccinations within barangays.