DOH: ‘Very low’ jab takers in Central Visayas

CEBU CITY—Not even half of the 54,000 health-care workers in Central Visayas had been inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccines, two weeks after its rollout started.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas, said the compliance rate in the region based on the data from 30 hospitals doing inoculation drives was still at 31.4 percent as of March 17.

“Our compliance rate is very low. We still have not reached 50 percent. This is why we’re urging our hospitals and other health institutions that already received the vaccine to fast-track (the vaccination) so we can proceed with A2 of the priority list,” she said.

As of Wednesday, only 13,843 hospital workers in the region received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines, both from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and British company AstraZeneca, she said.

According to Loreche, the low compliance could be attributed to the delay in reporting the vaccinations to DOH.

She said they planned to send DOH personnel to hospitals or other vaccination facilities to monitor the vaccination campaign.

Medical front-liners are tagged under A1 in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination priority schedule. A2 refers to senior citizens.

Central Visayas received over 100,000 doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines donated to the Philippines by the Chinese government and European nations, respectively. —REPORTS FROM DALE ISRAEL AND ADOR VINCENT MAYOL