The Department of Health (DOH) in Eastern Visayas has asked the city government here to improve its system in the vaccination rollout against Covid-19 to avoid overcrowding in the centers.
Ma. Teresa Caidic, DOH Region 8 chief local support division, said they noticed that during the inoculation schedules of the city, crowding took place outside the venues, especially when the Janssen vaccines were rolled out.
The city government has designated the two Robinsons Malls as vaccination sites.
“We can consider that as a super spreader event if we have crowding,” Caidic said in a meeting with the Tacloban City Council on Monday.
Caidic said that crowding has to be addressed because it is always possible that asymptomatic Covid-19 carriers are also lining up to get vaccinated.
She added that with the presence of variants of concern in the country, inoculation protocols must always adhere to the minimum health protocols such as physical distancing to prevent virus transmission.
“If possible, you make a schedule per hour like what other local governments are doing. They send text messages to people who will be inoculated at a specific time. Strictly, there’s no walk-in and everyone should be registered to avoid crowding. As a result, people will be more comfortable and don’t have to wait long,” she told officials.
In a press briefing Friday, Mayor Alfred Romualdez said there have been long lines because people not belonging to the priority group are taking chances.
He also noted that even those who are not from Tacloban also flocked to the city’s vaccination sites.
“I am appealing to you not to show up at the vaccination centers if you are not a frontline worker, senior citizen, or with comorbidity. Do not attempt to (fall in) line if it’s not your turn,” Romualdez added.
The DOH also proposed to the city to transfer some of the vaccine refrigerators in other district health centers to Diit Health Center, the designated vaccine cold storage facility of the city government.
Likewise, the DOH also proposed to improve the accessibility of senior citizens to vaccines by making a specific schedule for them on holidays or during weekends when their children or guardians are most likely available.
Based on the record presented by Caidic to the local legislators, the city has more than 25,000 senior citizens based on an official count of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
As of last week, only more than 7,000 have been inoculated.
“There should also be an advocacy to their children, not only to elderlies because usually, it is their children who decide if their parents will get the vaccines or not,” she said.
“We need to reach at least 90 percent of elderlies for us to be more confident of lesser Covid-19 related deaths among our vulnerable groups,” Caidic added.
Establishing more vaccination sites or doing domiciliary visits are also options to reach as many senior citizens or those with illnesses.
The DOH official recommended for the city to seek help from groups like the Philippine Nurses Association, Bureau of Fire Protection, and the Philippine National Police to increase the number of vaccination teams.
Source: Philippines News Agency
