THE Davao City Government is confident that the city will hit 100 percent herd immunity before the end of 2021.
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview on Monday, December 13, that the city has already recorded 1,191,694 jabbed for the first dose, which is 91.68 percent of the targeted herd immunity, and 1,046,084 second dose, or 80.47 percent of the targeted herd immunity.
Duterte-Carpio said in a previous interview that the city is targeting to vaccinate a total of 1,299,894 Dabawenyos.
The mayor said the Vaccination Cluster has not made any projections, but she personally believed that the remaining 108,000 can be vaccinated for the first dose before the year ends.
"We are supposed to be at 9,000 [vaccinees] per day para mahuman nato ang mga (so we can finish all) first doses by December 31, 2021. But I think with the next Bayanihan Bakunahan kadtong National Vaccination nato sa Covid-19, we can add more... maybe ma-achieve nato ang 100 percent sa (we can achieve 100 percent vaccinees for the) first doses," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
The second round of the national vaccination drive will be on December 15 to 17, wherein all vaccination hubs in the city will be open to cater to walk-in vaccinees for first, second, and missed doses. The drive also aims to increase the number of vaccinated Filipinos against Covid-19.
For the second dose, she said the city might achieve herd immunity in or before January 2022.
The mayor and the vaccination cluster cited vaccine hesitancy as a contributing factor for the delays in the city’s target to achieve herd immunity.
Davao City is among the 23 cities in the country to have achieved population protection, according to Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año.
Año corrected on Friday, December 10, his recent statement that these cities had already achieved "herd immunity."
The Department of Health (DOH) also awarded Davao City, along with Boston in Davao Oriental, and Panabo City in Davao del Norte for achieving the highest first-dose vaccination coverage of the Covid-19 vaccine in the entire Davao Region as of December 3, 2021.
DOH-Davao reported that Davao City achieved the highest vaccination coverage with 88 percent, followed by Boston with 79.7 percent, and Panabo City with 75.6 percent.
DOH-Davao said the region "have taken great leaps forward in fighting the [Covid-19] virus through ongoing vaccination efforts in communities."