More senior citizens sign up for Covid-19 vaccination

CHARITY’S LINE. Residents of Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City wait in line for the opening of a community pantry on V. Rama Ave. on Friday morning, May 14, 2021, while authorities remind them to observe social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19.PHOTO BY AMPER CAMPAÑA
CHARITY’S LINE. Residents of Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City wait in line for the opening of a community pantry on V. Rama Ave. on Friday morning, May 14, 2021, while authorities remind them to observe social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19.PHOTO BY AMPER CAMPAÑA

THE Covid-19 vaccine acceptance among senior citizens (Group A2 in the vaccination prioritization) in Central Visayas has improved, the Department of Health (DOH) 7 reported.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH 7 spokesperson, said as of Thursday, May 13, a total of 606,444 senior citizens in the region had already registered for the Covid-19 vaccination program.

This is about 30,000 more than the number of registered senior citizens on April 20, which was only 572,626, said Loreche in a press briefer on Friday, May 14.

Majority of the individuals who registered for vaccination are from Cebu Province (168,832), Bohol (155,918) and Negros Oriental (128,025).

Of the registered individuals, 22,499 elderly have already received the Covid-19 vaccine.

Bohol, however, has not started its vaccination for senior citizens as it intends to finish vaccinating first its healthcare workers.

Meanwhile, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma along with the two auxiliary bishops of Cebu have already received their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine under the Project Balik Buhay (PBB) vaccination initiative.

Msgr. Joseph Tan, media liaison of the Archdiocese of Cebu, said the ceremonial vaccination of the senior citizen members of the Archdiocese and those with comorbidities happened last April 6, while the official vaccination for the rest of the Priority Group A2 and A3 members of the Archdiocese started last Monday, May 10.

He said a little more than 900 secular, diocesan and religious priests, nuns and lay employees from the parishes and the schools under the Archdiocese had registered for vaccination.

Final list

Meanwhile, Loreche said they are still waiting for the final listing for the allocation of the Pfizer vaccine for the three highly urbanized cities of Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue and Cebu.

Central Visayas recently received 29,250 doses of Pfizer vaccines.

As of May 13, a total of 89,115 (66.8 percent) of the total target healthcare workers for vaccination have already been inoculated, while a total of 6,861 healthcare workers, senior citizens and individuals with comorbidities have already been vaccinated under the PBB vaccination initiative as of May 13.

Additional doses

In Mandaue City, an additional shipment of 22,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine have arrived, and these doses will be administered to healthcare workers and senior citizens next week.

The Mandaue City Vaccination Operations Center received the vaccines on May 13, 2021. It can be recalled that earlier this week, the city had also received 700 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that will be allocated for the second dose of the healthcare workers who received the first dose of the same brand.

City Councilor Ernie Manatad, Vaccine Board chairman, said they will start to administer the 22,700 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines on Monday, May 17, 2021, in the city’s vaccination post inside the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex.

He said the 22,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will be given as first dose to healthcare workers who decided to get vaccinated, and to the master-listed senior citizens of all barangays in the city.

By the time there will be no more senior citizens who want to be vaccinated, Manatad said they will proceed to inoculating persons with comorbidities (Priority Group A3).

Mobile vaccination

Meanwhile, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Cebu Chapter said it will launch next month its UBE Express bus, a mobile vaccination clinic to complement the vaccination program of the local government units.

This replication of the mobile vaccination centers spearheaded by their headquarters in the National Capital Region supplements the vaccination efforts of the isolation facilities.

PRC Cebu Chapter administrator Maria Vera de Jesus said the UBE Express will be the auxiliary support of the PRC for the government’s vaccination program.

The mobile vaccination clinic will give convenience to the people living far from the center of the city and municipality, and have limited access to transportation, said de Jesus.

De Jesus said they are coordinating with local government units that need PRC’s services in providing vaccines to the people. (WBS, KFD)

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