ABOUT 96,930 Kagay-anons were vaccinated since the start of Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy’s administration in June last year even as more vaccines are scheduled for delivery this March, the City Health Office (CHO) said on Monday.
“From July 1 or the start of the government’s PinasLakas vaccination campaign, the city vaccinated 40,266 city residents aged 12 years old and older or 44.92 percent o the city’s population while we vaccinated only 328 seniors for the same period or about 81.79 percent which is still short of our mandated 90 percent for the elderly,” said CHO immunization program coordinator Dr. Ina Grace Chiu.
During Monday morning’s Covid-19 response press briefing, Dr. Chiu said the city vaccinated 37,647 children aged five to 11 years old, or 52.7 percent from last July up to February 3, 2023.
“This is still short of the mandated 71,432 targets or about 70 percent of the targeted full vaccination coverage for the five to 11-year-old population of the city,” she said.
For those aged 12 years old to 17 years old, Dr. Chiu said the mandated target for first booster coverage is pegged at 100 percent.
While more than half a million Kagay-anons received the primary two doses, about 179,902 received the first booster dose while 29,565 received the second booster dose as of February 3 this year, Dr. Chiu added.
“For those aged 12 to 17 years old, we administered first booster doses to 5,140 or 8.88 percent. This means 52,735 youths (in that age bracket) are still due for their first booster dose,” Dr. Chiu said.
Despite these numbers, CHO epidemiologist Dr. Teodulfo Joselito Retuya Jr said they received word from the Department of Health regional office that additional booster doses will arrive in early March.
“The word we received is that one million bivalent doses donated by the Covax facility will arrive in the country in early March and these doses are effective against the latest Covid-19 Omicron sub-variants. No word on how much we will receive in the city but as per usual the first recipients will be our medical frontliners (followed by the seniors and so on),” Dr. Retuya said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
