Quezon City jabs 500,000 residents, workers during ECQ

MANILA, Philippines — Around 500,000 vaccine doses were administered to Quezon City residents and workers during the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the local government reported yesterday.

Data showed that from Aug. 6 to 20, 415,923 people received first dose shots and 77,077 were fully vaccinated. The jab recipients were from the A1 to A5 priority groups.

“Every vaccine we administer is a life we save. So we made full use of our registration processes – barangay-assisted, QCVaxEasy Portal, company-assisted, homeowners’ associations and bakuna nights to reach our target beneficiaries and vaccinate them during the ECQ when we were given additional supply of vaccines,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement.

As of Saturday, the local government had administered over 2.1 million vaccine doses.

Quezon City aims to reach population protection by vaccinating at least 80 percent of its adult population.

Belmonte assured the public that once the local lovernment has achieved population protection, the vaccination program would continue for as long as there are eligible residents and workers wanting to get inoculated.

She said the COVID-19 vaccines allocated to the city were rolled out immediately, with an average of 200,000 people inoculated per week with at least one dose.

Joseph Juico, co-chairman of the city’s Task Force Vax to Normal, said the inoculation would continue as long as there are available vaccines.