AS of August 27, over 80 percent or 26,003 have been fully vaccinated out of 32,470 registered senior citizens; while 2,804 are partially vaccinated and 3,663 remain unvaccinated.
Out of the 32,202 initially identified senior citizens in the city as tagged by the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), verification by the Management Information and Technology Department (MITD) was able to trim the list to 30,801.
The trimming was done by removing registered individuals who have since transferred residence or returned to their home provinces.
Of the verified list of remaining senior citizens, 81.75 percent or 25,175 have received full dosages of Sinovac, Pfizer, Astrazeneca, Gamaleya, or Janssen and Janssen. 7.3 percent or 2,234 are vaccinated with the first dose and are awaiting the second dose, leaving 3,382 or 11 percent still awaiting any vaccination.
Vaccination remains underway and prioritizes senior citizens at the main vaccination sites at the University of Baguio (UB), Saint Louis University (SLU), and the SM Parking area as long as they are registered at the bakuna.baguio.gov.ph site and are able to present a quick-response (QR) code from the site.
Some have availed of the Mobile Vaccination (MoVacc), a home service mode of vaccination for those who are bedridden, immobilized senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs). District (Disvacc) and Satellite (SatVacc) vaccination sites were also opened for those in far-flung areas, in addition to the megasites within the central business district.
Lately, as an incentive to get vaccinated, the mobile vaccination team also had a basket of groceries and vitamins for the vaccines.
In a related development, A1 or health workers’ vaccination records are being reconciled. Accordingly, the masterlist shows 11,021 with 10,805 or 98.04% fully vaccinated. There are 216 remaining second dose vaccines for said priority group.
The city is targeting at least 95 percent of the eligible population to be vaccinated at the soonest possible time with the ongoing roll out of the government’s mass vaccination program to achieve herd immunity of the populace.
Magalong stated that from the previous target of more than 141,000 persons to be vaccinated, which represents at least 70 percent of the city’s eligible population, the target population has now increased to more than 281,000 individuals.
He added that the city’s new target population is part of the ongoing efforts of the local government to deal with the emerging threat of the Delta variant following the two reported Delta variant cases in the city that was confirmed by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).
At present, the city has vaccinated over 214,000 doses of the provided vaccines, with 89,000 city residents fully vaccinated and more than 125,000 who have received their first dose.
The local chief executive claimed the local government will have more than enough vaccines to inoculate the eligible population because a bulk of the procured vaccines is expected to arrive in the coming months.
The city has purchased more than 380,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the manufacturer but to date only 10,900 doses were delivered last month, while another 17,900 doses are expected to arrive in the city this month.
Magalong explained that there was a delay in the delivery of the purchased vaccines on the supply side aside from the fact that a bulk of the vaccines that arrived was part of what the private sector had purchased.
Based on the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the population of the city as of the 2020 census of population is more than 366,000.
The eligible population that can be provided with the available vaccines is more than 296,000 after removing the 19 percent of the total population aged 12 to 17 years old.
The mayor stipulated that the more than 281,000 individuals that should be vaccinated was computed based on the number of eligible population that should be vaccinated pursuant to the inoculation guidelines crafted by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases.
He emphasized that the local government might be able to vaccinate the individuals aged 12 to 17 years old by the end of the year after the city shall have vaccinated a significant portion of the targeted eligible population that must be vaccinated to be able to achieve herd immunity and allow the gradual and safe recovery of the local economy.
The city is able to vaccinate at least 3,000 daily based on the availability of the different vaccines provided by concerned government agencies. – with reports from Dexter A. See and Julie G. Fianza
