DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the City Government is targeting to vaccinate at least 10,000 Dabawenyos per day in order to achieve the targeted herd immunity before the end of this year.
Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview on Monday, May 24, that this was initially discussed, but this will only be achievable if there will be ample and stable supply of vaccines in the city.
“Initially, ang na-discuss nato for us to finish in the soonest possible time, we need to vaccinate 10,000 vaccinees per day (Our initial discussion was for us to finish the vaccination in the soonest possible time, we need to vaccinate 10,000 vaccinees per day),” Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
The mayor said the City Government is targeting to inoculate at least 70 percent of its 1.2 million population to achieve "herd immunity."
According to the World Health Organization, herd immunity is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.
Duterte-Carpio said the city is expected to receive more doses of vaccines by the third quarter of this year.
“Duna ta’y expectation, next month daghan kuno ang moabot nga bakuna karong June (We are expecting that by June next month [or third quarter] there will be a large number of vaccine doses to be delivered in the city),” the mayor said.
Duterte-Carpio previously said British–Swedish biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has committed to deliver 30,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the city by the third quarter of this year but will be delivered by tranches.
This is on top of the number of doses provided by the National Government, through the Department of Health (DOH).
As of now, three brands are being used for Covid-19 vaccination in Davao City: Astrazeneca, Chinese vaccine Sinovac's CoronaVac, and American manufactured Pfizer–BioNTech.
The City Government is pushing for the creation of additional vaccination sites to accommodate more vaccine beneficiaries.
“We need to up our resources, our vaccines centers that it can vaccinate 10,000 a day, assuming lang nga steady ang padala sa atong bakuna (assuming that the delivery of vaccine is consistent),” Duterte-Carpio said.
At present, the City Government administers 500 vaccinees per vaccination site. With the completion of 20 vaccination areas, it hopes to achieve its target of at least 10,000 per day.
Davao City has so far 19 vaccination hubs, which include SM Lanang Premier, SM City Davao, A. Mabini Elementary School, Malagos Elementary School, Crossing Bayabas National High School, Calinan Central Elementary School, Matina Aplaya Elementary School, Kor-Phil Vocational Training Center in Bunawan, Magallanes Elementary School, Mintal Central Elementary School, Buhangin Central Elementary School, Davao City National High School, Davao Medical School Foundation Hospital, Brokenshire Hospital, Gig Oca Seamen’s Hospital, Southern Philippines Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital, San Pedro Hospital, and Metro Davao Medical and Research Center.
As of now, the city is inoculating Priority Group A2 or senior citizens.