Vaccinees' 'no-show' not a problem in Central Visayas

CEBU, Philippines —  Contrary to what is happening in the National Capital Region where frontliners belonging to A1 priority group in the national immunization program against COVID-19 are not showing up for their second dose, Department of Health-7 spokesperson and chief epidemiologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said that they have a very encouraging response in Central Visayas.

So far, 63,577 or 61.1% of the 104,116 frontliners initially vaccinated have already received their second dose. Loreche said there are 28,170 individuals under A1 priority in the region that are yet to receive their first dose.

 “Kaning no-show sa mga A1 sa ilang second dose mao man kini issue karon sa national, pero kita diri sa Central Visayas sa atong A1, atong second dose, very good…and I look forward for an excellent grade for this,” Loreche said.

For the A2 priority or the senior citizens, Loreche said that 12,191 have been fully inoculated out of the 68,464 who received their first dose. The total eligible population for A2 in the region is 549,444.

For A3 or persons with comorbidities, 38,513 of them have already received the initial shot and 3,255 are fully immunized. So far, the region has received 449,010 total doses of vaccines from Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Gamaleya.

Meanwhile, over 260,000 employees of economic zones in the Visayas will be getting their COVID-19 vaccines following the request of Philippines Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Charito "Ching" Plaza.

Central Visayas has the largest number of ecozone workers with a total number of 221,374 direct workers; followed by 38,270 employees in Western Visayas; and 6,153 in Eastern Visayas.

The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) in partnership with Project Balik Buhay (PBB) facilitates the vaccination of the employees under PEZA.

"It is high time that we pay back our investors a post-pandemic economic relief recovery platform," said Plaza.

Aside from assisting in the vaccination of workers at economic zones, Secretary Michael Dino said they are also sharing their best practices in Central Visayas to the other regions.

The PBB is an initiative of OPAV, local government units, DOH-7, and the private sector to facilitate the gradual reopening of the economy.

The PBB has also been helping facilitate the government’s National Vaccination Program through its Private Sector Vaccination Centers set up in Cebu. This is in support of the national government’s goal of achieving a safe, fast and successful implementation of the National Vaccination Program in Cebu and the Visayas. — FPL (FREEMAN)