The Department of Health in Davao Region (DOH-11) has increased the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine allocation for the province of Davao del Norte, an official said Friday.
In a statement, Provincial Health Office (PHO) head Dr. Alfredo Lacerona said just this week, their office received 17,000 doses of Sinovac which was also immediately distributed to 11 local government units (LGUs).
“In the entire region we get a larger allocation of the vaccine because of our good performance, and our vaccination is very fast,” said Lacerona, who is also chief of the province’s Covid-19 Task Force Incident Command.
Lacerona said the 17,000 doses will be administered to the province based on the timeline set by the DOH-11.
“This is enough for the whole province. In fact, the number of those who wanted to get vaccinated in the LGUs is increasing because they are already preparing for the arrival of the vaccines. They already have the vaccination sites,” he added.
Lacerona said as of Aug. 8, only 5,000 to 6,300 individuals were targeted to get inoculated every Thursday and Friday — the province’s vaccination schedule — depending on the supply of the vaccines.
Currently, he said 17 percent of their population are partially vaccinated [first dose] and nine percent are fully vaccinated for the second dose.
“We targeted to inoculate 744,405 individuals to achieve population protection or 70 percent of the entire population is vaccinated,” he said.
Lacerona also thanked Governor Edwin Jubahib for his efforts in asking the national government to increase their vaccine allocation as well as the upgrading of the Contact Tracing System of the DavNor Covid-19 Information Management System (DCIMS).
“He [Jubahib] keeps on writing, keeps on calling the national government, and keeps on asking for help because we aim to have herd immunity by the end of 2021. However, it is still not a guarantee because we will still depend on the vaccine supply,” he added.
Lacerona urged anew the people in Davao del Norte to get vaccinated against Covid-19, especially now that they have recorded cases of the Delta variant.
Source: Philippines News Agency
