RISING DEMAND FOR VAX. A nurse is seen administering a vaccine jab to a medical front-liner at the start of the vaccination rollout in March 2021. Cebu City Project Vaccine Storm deputy lead convenor Erik Miguel Espina (inset) on Wednesday (June 30, 2021) noted a rising demand for vaccines as the city temporarily stopped the inoculation while waiting for more supplies from the Department of Health. (PNA file photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY – This city’s vaccination body has noted a rising demand for inoculation against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) even as local health authorities are waiting for more vaccine supplies from the Department of Health, an official said on Wednesday.
Erik Miguel Espina, deputy lead convenor of Cebu City Project Vaccine Storm, said many residents have been sending queries on the resumption of vaccination sites' operation.
“Every time we open the vaccinations centers, people who are very eager to get vaccinated flock the area,” Espina told the Philippine News Agency in an interview.
He said Vice Mayor Michael Rama, the vaccination body's lead convenor, expressed confidence the national government would consider sending a higher allocation of vaccines for the city.
“It’s not only a question of the rising demand, we are trying to accomplish the 35 to 40 percent of population that wants to be inoculated as soon as possible,” Espina pointed out.
He said the Cebu City Project Vaccine Storm is yet to decide whether to continue with the inoculation activity using the remaining 5,000 out of 68,440 doses of Sinovac vaccines that arrived Tuesday in the province, stressing that such number can be consumed in just two to three days.
Mayor Edgardo Labella, in a statement via social media, said he is in touch with vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., as the city remains one of the priorities in the national vaccination rollout.
He said the city is expecting a fresh Sinovac allocation from the national government as well as the first batch of Moderna vaccines that arrived in the country on Monday.
Espina, meanwhile, said the city is ready to roll out its own mass vaccination if ever the national government would decide to forego with the stratification of recipients to reach the desired population protection.
He opined that the 75 percent population protection could be achieved if the national government would empower local government units in the vaccine purchase.
The city, he said, allocated PHP500 million for the purchase of vaccines but the current policy disallows purchases other than those being coursed through the National Covid-19 Vaccination task force.
He also hoped President Rodrigo Duterte would certify a bill that will tap barangay health workers for Covid-19 vaccination just like on any other vaccines being administered by them to village folks under close supervision by a doctor or nurse.
Currently, the law only identifies certain medical workers who can administer Covid-19 vaccine jabs.
“Time is the enemy now because we want to reach the herd immunity that we want to achieve to protect the country against coronavirus,” Espina said. (PNA)
