THE Mandaue City Vaccine Board announced that the city has already achieved the 50 percent vaccination of the senior citizens, a requirement before it can conduct its vaccination rollout for the minors.
Vaccine Board chairman Ernie Manatad said on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, that Mandaue City has vaccinated more than 50 percent of the 33,000 senior citizens registered in the master list.
The pilot vaccination for minors has started in Metro Manila. The second phase of the pediatric vaccination in the National Capital Region (NCR) will start on Friday, Oct. 22 and end on Oct. 31 in at least 23 hospitals and local government units in Metro Manila. Around 144,000 children ages 12 to 17 years old, especially those with comorbidities, are targeted in the vaccination.
In Mandaue City, Manatad said they made the effort to vaccinate the majority of registered senior citizens after the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) announced that no local government unit can start its pediatric vaccination, unless it has vaccinated 50 percent of the registered senior citizens.
The City previously reported to have vaccinated only 47 percent of their registered senior citizens; however, Manatad said when they culled their records, they found out that there were senior citizens listed under the A3 subcategory, persons with comorbidities.
After culling their records from all the subcategories, Manatad said they have found out that the city has already vaccinated more than 50 percent.
Manatad said they have submitted their reports to the Department of Health (DOH). Despite vaccinating over 50 percent of senior citizens, Manatad said they have yet to receive an advisory from the DOH if they can already start inoculating their minors.
Master list
In case the DOH will give their go signal, Manatad said Mandaue City is ready to implement it as they already have a master list of 12 to 17 years old.
As of Oct. 14, the Mandaue City Vaccination Operations Center (VOC) reported that it already registered 21,279 minors aged 12 to 17 years old.
Aside from this, the VOC also registered 11,156 who are less than a year old to 11 years old for the vaccination master list. All in all, Mandaue City has registered 32,435 for the pediatric sector.
Also, Manatad said they have yet to receive vaccines for the minors although they received Pfizer in their recent allocation but it will be allocated for the other subcategories. He said that Mandaue City still has 2,000 doses of Pfizer.
Incentives
Meanwhile, VVOC spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche suggested giving incentives to senior citizens so they would be encouraged to get vaccinated.
Loreche said of the 89.9 percent listed senior citizens in highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, and Talisay City, Naga City, Consolacion, Minglanilla, Cordova and Liloan, only 44.12 percent were fully vaccinated.
As of Oct. 15, the VVOC data showed that of the 203,597 registered senior citizens, only 99,897 were vaccinated with the second dose, while 72,304 were vaccinated with the
first dose.
Loreche urged Lapu-Lapu City to intensify its vaccination of senior citizens. Lapu-Lapu registered 40,000 of their senior citizens, but there were only 11,699 fully vaccinated or 29.25 percent. The administered the first dose to 7,326 senior citizens or 18.32 percent.
Talisay City led all the LGUs with the vaccination of senior citizens with 58.54 percent, or 9,085 of its 15,603 registered seniors. It vaccinated 4,521 or 29.13 percent for the first dose. (KFD, JOB, TPM / SunStar Philippines)