Cebu City exhausts COVID-19 vaccine stock

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City has run out of COVID-19 vaccines and is now awaiting the allocation from the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas.

“Mag-agad lang gyud ta sa atoang DOH. If they can give us more, that’s better,” said City Health officer-in-charge Jeffrey Ibones.

On Thursday night, 210,000 additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, bringing to 724,310 total doses received by DOH-7 since the national immunization program started in March.

With the limited supply of vaccines for the first dose yesterday, Ibones said only two vaccination sites were opened— Robinsons Galleria and University of Cebu on Alcantara St. in Barangay Sambag I. In these sites, the vaccination for second dose also took place.

He is hoping that the allocation for the city will be provided this weekend so that the vaccination rollout for the first dose could resume on Monday.

Ibones explained that vaccine availability has been a serious challenge for them.

“That’s the reason why ang atoang vice mayor (Acting Mayor Michael Rama) ganiha ni-appeal to siya sa national vaccination operations center nga meeting,” he said yesterday.

“Wa man siya mo-demand. He is asking. Hopefully matagaan ta’g daghang bakuna para atoang mahatag sa atong mga kaigsuonan labi na sa A4. Daghan kaayog nagpaabot nga mga A4,” he added.

A4 priority group covers frontline personnel in essential sectors.

Ibones said based on their latest record, almost 200,000 individuals already registered online, and at least 30,000 of these belong to the A4 priority group.

He, however, said that if the city receives its allocation by next week, it will still depend on the vaccine if it would be allowed to be administered to the A4.

“Ang nahitabo ron, pwede naman gyud ta kasugod sa A4 pero ang vaccine nga naa nato is COVAX facility gikan mao nang di pa ta pwede kay naa may guidelines ang COVAX nga kinahanglan A1 to A3 ra,” he earlier explained.

“Ang ila giingon, basta COVAX facilities nga hinatag sa WHO (World Health Organization), di gyud ta sa A4 pa except kung moingon ang DOH (Department of Health) na magsugod,” he added.

More vaccines

Moreover, a total of 2,279,160 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from the COVAX Facility arrived in the Philippines on Thursday with 210,600 doses of it allocated for Metro Cebu.

DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas together with Chief Pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, OPAV Sec. Michael Llyod Dino, Cebu City Acting Mayor Michael Mike Rama, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Ahong Chan, USAID Philippine’s Reach Health Project Chief of Party Dr. Laurentiu Stan, and Stephanie Moniot, a representative from the US Embassy, received the vaccines at the Mactan International airport last Thursday night.

Authorities have yet to disclose the exact volume of doses per local government unit under Metro Cebu.

Reso on travel revised

Meanwhile, the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) has amended a portion of resolution 119 with regard to the inbound international travel to any port of the Philippines of all fully vaccinated individuals.

IATF Resolution No. 120 says that a fully vaccinated individual must carry his or her vaccination card which must be verified prior to his/her departure from the country of origin prior to boarding.

Aside from that, prior to his/her departure, one’s vaccination card has to be certified by the Department of Information and Communications Technology, or by the City Health Officer of the local government unit which administered the last dose necessary for full vaccination.

 The certification will also have to be presented to the dedicated Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) representative for re-verification at the Department of Transportation One-Stop-Shop (OSS) upon arrival in the Philippines. — Caecent No-ot Magsumbol, KQD (FREEMAN)