By Joseph B.A. Marzan
Herd immunity against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Western Visayas remains remote as less than 10 percent of registered vaccinees were actually inoculated, according to data from the Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD).
As of July 4, 2021, a total of 405,699 individuals in the region received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 126,857 of them were already fully vaccinated or received the second dose. The total translates to a 7-day moving average of 5,050 vaccinations per day.
The number of vaccinated persons so far is only 7.79 percent of the 5,209,382 individuals in Priority Group A computed (18 years old and above) that were listed by DOH-WV CHD.
The figure is also far from the region’s 2021 projected population of 7,970,551, based on the health office’s COVID-19 situationer.
By priority group, subgroup A3 (persons with co-morbidities) received the most number of first-dose vaccinees in the region with 139,873, or 26.85 percent of the 520,938 persons listed by the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC).
Subgroup A2 (senior citizens) accounted for 134,606 (16.68 percent of 807,165 master-listed), A1 (frontline heath care workers) with 112,398 (85.17 percent of 131,635 master-listed), A4 (frontline workers in other essential sectors) with 17,536 (22.32 percent of 78,565 master-listed), and A5 (indigent residents) with 1,077 (0.21 percent of 512,589 master-listed).
The DOH is still validating 209 vaccinees according to their subgroups.
Iloilo province has administered the most number of first doses (89,381), followed by Negros Occidental (82,019), Iloilo City (72,855), Bacolod City (53,736), Aklan (30,766), Capiz (37,200) Antique (29,437), and Guimaras (10,305).
Iloilo province also leads the pack in second-dose vaccinations (31,826), followed by Iloilo City (24,224), Negros Occidental (18,761), Capiz (13,780), Bacolod City (12,393), Aklan (11,260), Antique (11,002), and Guimaras (3,611).
As to the 167 wasted doses in San Enrique, Iloilo, DOH-WV CHD Medical Officer III Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te said that the potency was affected by fluctuating power supply in the area where vaccines were being stored.
DOH-WV CHD is still validating the report provided by the provincial and municipal health offices, and they might discard the wasted vaccines.
“After investigation, and if it was learned that there would be no hope, the potency may have been affected. The only thing that we would do is to look at it because it may not be effective. Once validated by the DOH, because they had a brown out, we would no longer use the vaccines rather than giving newer ones whose efficacy would not be good as well,” Te said in a virtual press conference.
She also encouraged the public to have themselves vaccinated, citing the continuing spread of COVID-19 in the region.
“We encourage our people in Western Visayas, it would be better to be vaccinated in our fight against COVID-19. As what has been explained, because other countries have reached herd immunity [targets] and have a high vaccination rate, they have smaller numbers becoming hospitalized, that is why we have to encourage because we still have high number of cases. If we don’t get vaccinated yet, we may have more serious positive cases,” Te said.
