VACCINATION in Davao Region is in full swing as it can be despite the limited doses it has.
As of May 18, a total of 374,130 doses have been delivered to Davao Region. Of this number, 84,228 have already been administered for the first dose while 28,078 have been administered for the second dose. Vaccines that are being administered in the region are from Sinovac, Pfizer BioNTech, and AstraZeneca.
At present, the Department of Health-Davao Region (DOH-Davao) and local government units (LGUs) are vaccinating frontline healthcare workers (A1) and senior citizens (A2).
Data from the City Health Office showed that a total of 24,639 frontline workers have received their Covid-19 vaccines since March. Of this number 11,397 have received their second dose. Meanwhile, a total of 3,387 senior citizens have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccines. A total of 27,796 individuals from A1 and 88,000 from A2 are targeted to be inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine.
The Davao City government has also established 11 vaccination sites to be able to vaccinate as many senior citizens as possible and at the same time control the number of individuals coming to the vaccination sites. These sites are SM Lanang Premier, SM City Davao in Ecoland, A. Mabini Elementary School, Matina Aplaya Elementary School, Malagos Elementary School, Crossing Bayabas National High School, Kor-Phil Vocational Training Center in Bunawan, Calinan Central Elementary School, Magallanes Elementary School, Mintal Elementary School, and Buhangin Elementary School.
Some of the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines allocated for seniors are also being at private hospitals, which have the facilities to meet the temperature requirements of the vaccine.
City Health Office (CHO) Acting Head Dr. Ashley Lopez said the City Government is looking into opening nine additional vaccination sites to be able to vaccinate more individuals. These additional sites are seen to ramp up the city's vaccination to around 500 to 700 persons per day.
In terms of vaccine allocation, Lopez said Davao City is among the priority areas of the national government for the vaccine rollout together with Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.
The AstraZeneca vaccines the city government ordered are expected to arrive by the third quarter of this year.
It is good to note that the city is doing what it can to step up its vaccination drive. However, the vaccination drive is not one without problems.
Through the grapevine, stories of some individuals allegedly cutting the lines are endless. Some even had the audacity to post on social media that they have been vaccinated despite not being part of A1 or A2. These have yet to be properly addressed and verified by authorities.
Health authorities also maintain that cutting the lines is not allowed. No one, except for those who were captured on social media, has yet been reported or caught for cutting the lines at vaccination sites.
As the city and health authorities ramp up their vaccination drive, we also hope they could address the issue of line cutting. Hopefully, they can also provide concrete measures to prevent such incidents from happening.
The vaccination may be in full swing but the alleged line cutting may prevent the city and health authorities from administering the vaccine to its targeted individuals.