ILOILO City – The Department of Health (DOH) is eyeing to vaccinate against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) essential workers in Western Visayas next month.
But this is dependent on the allocation for Western Visayas and how fast local government units carry out the vaccination once the vaccines are available, according to Dr. Bea Camille Natalaray, section head of DOH Region 6’s integrated non-communicable diseases prevention and control program.
The A4 priority group consists of frontline personnel in essential sectors both public and private, including uniformed personnel, and those working in sectors identified by the Inter-Agency Task Force that are directly client-facing and cannot dutifully meet minimum public health standards, the DOH said.
As of May 16, Natalaray noted that a total of 107,877 individuals from priority groups A1 to A3 in Western Visayas have availed themselves of the first dose, a report of the Regional Vaccination Operations Center (RVOC) showed.
The accomplishment is 47.24 percent of the 228,380 doses total allocation of the region intended for the first shot.
Some 28,533 have availed themselves of the CoronaVac vaccines for their second dose and 234 using AstraZeneca jabs.
“As of today, we have simultaneous vaccination of our priority groups, A1 to A3. We need to exert more effort to complete our A1 to A3 population otherwise, we defeat the purpose of our prioritization framework,” she said.
Natalaray said healthcare workers top the priority list to protect the healthcare system. To prevent mortality, prioritizing senior citizens and persons with comorbidity are being prioritized.
As of May 16, the RVOC master listed 129,696 healthcare workers, 788,431 senior citizens, and 79,855 adults with comorbidity who are eligible for the inoculation.
She added the region is expecting additional 1.5 million doses of the Sinovac vaccines, which are yet to be delivered.
Meanwhile, Natalaray said they have no data as to wastage but they are doing the “reverse logistics” where used vials are being collected and compared with the persons vaccinated. (PNA/PN)
