DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 Oct) – Local government units (LGUs) in the Davao Region need to ramp up their vaccination rollout to inoculate at least 61,514 individuals daily against the highly infectious coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with less than six weeks remaining to reach the target “herd immunity” by the end of November this year, an official of the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao said.
Dr. Janis Olivades, vaccination team leader for DOH-Davao, told “Usapang Pangkalusugan” streamed live over the agency’s Facebook page Monday that the regional vaccination only averages around 47,000 daily, lower as compared with the number of vaccinees to attain the target of 3,759,878 or 70% of the region’s total population by November 30.
“We’re confident that – together with the help of local government units, our other partners, stakeholders, and local chief executives who are backing up vaccination for health implementing units – we can achieve this,” she said.
Olivades said the agency remains confident that the region would still be able to attain the target as it is working double time to look for the remaining 60.5% who are still unvaccinated.
Dr. Rachel Joy Pasion, head of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) of DOH-Davao, said in her presentation that the region has received a total of 4,483,220 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, of which 3,391,394 doses were distributed.
As of October 16, she added that the region recorded a total of 1,383,976 individuals vaccinated with the first dose of the two-dose vaccines, 1,013,893 with second dose, and 144,269 with the single-dose Janssen of Johnson & Johnson.
Olivades said that the agency met with local chief executives of the cities, municipalities, and provinces to give them their respective daily targets in order to help the region achieve its target immunity this year.
Among LGUs in the region, she said that Davao City, which recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Mindanao, has reported the highest vaccination rate at 61.6% before reaching its target of 1.2 million individuals to attain “herd immunity.”
“We need to increase the cover. There are municipalities in each province that are lagging behind. We reiterate the importance of looking into the output per municipality… in order to increase their vaccination activities,” she said.
As of October 18, Davao Region recorded a total of 100,248 COVID-19 cases, with 12,082 active, 84,997 recoveries, and 3,169 deaths.
Out of this total, Davao City reported 52,350 cases, with 4,031 active, 46,669 recoveries, 1,650 deaths. Davao de Oro reported 7,154, Davao del Norte with 18,527, Davao del Sur with 11,229, Davao Occidental with 3,606, and Davao Oriental with 7,382. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)