PARENTS who have not been given the second shot oral polio vaccine type 2 (OPV2), are only given until Friday, December 13, to go to their nearest health centers, following the extension of the second round of the Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio.
Davao City Health Office (CHO) head Dr. Josephine Villafuerte said the second round of the citywide mass vaccination, which started November 25, was supposedly to end on Sunday, December 8.
She said parents who failed to show up in the nearest health centers would have to avail it in the next round.
However, Villafuerte said the extension was made upon the request of the Department of Health (DOH), saying that some provinces, currently, have not reached a 95-percent target immunization coverage.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), having a 95-percent and above immunization coverage would guarantee the protection of the children from the possible virus infection.
Meanwhile, according to the CHO data as of December 11, the immunization coverage of Davao City has exceeded 100-percent.
Based on the cumulative consolidated OPV2 report, the city has already had a 105.01-percent coverage rate, with a total number of 196,218 children immunized ranged from zero to 59 months old. This is way beyond the projected 163,310 children in the target age group, based on the 2019 Philippine Statistics Authority data.
“Davao reached beyond more than 100 percent because we’ve covered not only those from the city, but also those who came in to Davao City,” Villafuerte said.
Meanwhile, a CHO health official said they do not have the breakdown of those from the city, and other places.
CHO technical division chief Dr. Julinda Acosta, previously, said the city health cannot exclude anyone from being vaccinated, since the special vaccine, aside from free, is given to all children part of the target group as part of the country’s contingency measure to prevent the virus from spreading after a first confirmed polio case has resurfaced after almost two decades.
Although the number of the second round has a greater turnout compared to the first round, with only 99.4 percent, Villafuerte said those parents whose child have not yet been vaccinated must proceed to their nearest health center and avail the vaccine, which will not be available once the three-round mass vaccination will end.