MORE than 500 members of the indigenous peoples (IP) communities in Marilog District, Davao City were already administered with the Covid-19 vaccines as belonging to A5 priority group.
According to the Davao City Vaccination Cluster data as of June 24, a total of 497 doses were already administered with the first dose, while 25 were already administered with the second dose.
Davao City Covid-19 Vaccine Cluster head Dr. Josephine Villafuerte said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio Friday, June 25, that the A5 group is prioritized in the allocation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Villafuerte also said that those from Priority A1 group or workers in frontline health services, A2 or senior citizens, and A3 (persons with comorbidities) will also be allocated with the Pfizer vaccine. This is in accordance with the National Vaccine Deployment for Covid-19 of the Department of Health (DOH).
A5 group includes IPs and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
She revealed that those under the Priority A4 Group or the frontline personnel in essential sectors in the city are not prioritized in the inoculation of Pfizer.
"Atong Pfizer vaccine, ato siyang i-priority sa A1, A2, A3, ug ato napud i-apil ang paghatag sa Pfizer sa atong A5 (We will be prioritizing the inoculation of the Pfizer vaccine for the A1, A2, A3, and we will also include the A5 group)," Davao City Covid-19 Vaccine Cluster head Dr. Josephine Villafuerte said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio Friday, June 25.
Villafuerte explained that the Pfizer vaccines allocated in the city were sourced from the Covax facility.
"Dili i-administer ang Pfizer sa A4 because the Pfizer nga nag-abot are Covax commodity. Pag Covax commodity, it is Covax that dictates kung asa siya ihatag. Sila magbuot (We cannot administer the Pfizer vaccine to the A4 group since this is donated by the Covax facility. They are the ones dictating to whom it will be vaccinated)," she said.
According to the June 24 data of the city Vaccination Cluster, for the priority groups A1, A2, A3, and A5, a total of 176,823 doses were already administered with the first dose, and 37,109 with the second dose. A total of 37,616 were administered with the first dose and 23,457 with the second dose for A1, 69,231 (first dose) and 10,562 (second dose) for A2, and 69,479 (first dose) and 3,065 (second dose) for A3.
Villafuerte said 12.81 percent of Davao City’s 1.2 million target were already vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine.
She explained that one of the reasons why the second dose has low coverage was due to some being infected with Sars-CoV-2 in between doses.
"At the time na schedule sila for second dose, na-infect sila. Ang iba diha, na-consider as F1 [first-generation contact], na-quarantine so wala sila kaadto sa facilities. (they were scheduled but then they were infected with the Covid-19 virus. While some were tagged as A1 but they were quarantined in our facilities.) The others are sick, [while] the others maybe [are] out of town so wala sila na-schedule ana (they were not scheduled on that)," Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte also said that individuals inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine will get their second dose in 10 to 12 weeks after their first dose, as prescribed. She said some of them will get their second dose in August this year. But based on their observation, some have already gotten their second dose.
She again reiterated that the vaccine rollout in the city is not mandatory, however, the city continues to raise awareness on the importance of getting the vaccine to achieve “herd immunity.” (RGL)