FILE PHOTO: Iloilo City has started preparing for the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines through a simulation exercise for its vaccination drive on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. The city government is waiting for its vaccine supply from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca. —PHOTO COURTESY OF ILOILO CITY GOVERNMENT
ILOILO CITY—To boost its COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, the Iloilo City government has brought its inoculation program to the barangay level.
Vaccinators went to barangay centers or homes in nine of the city’s 180 villages to inoculate villagers, especially the elderly, and those difficult to reach.
“Today, our vaccination team was deployed to the barangays for us to make sure that we can vaccinate everyone who wants to be vaccinated. Because of the new variants, which are more infectious, we need to vaccinate more Ilonggos, especially our remaining senior citizens and the immunocompromised,” Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said in a statement.
The house-to-house inoculation targets 7,200 doses daily. The nine villages are San Isidro, Balabago, Baldoza, Santo Rosario, Estanzuela, Bakhaw, Boulevard, Calaparan, and Barrio Obrero.
These are among the barangays with the biggest population. Other villages will be targeted next week.
Since the vaccine roll-out began, vaccinations have been conducted in seven centers in the city.
But Treñas earlier said some residents remained hesitant to be vaccinated, prompting the city government to open up vaccinations for walk-ins and from neighboring provinces.
The city aims to vaccinate 525,000 residents and non-residents, who are working in the city, to achieve herd immunity.
Those fully vaccinated reached 143,043 or 27.25 percent of the target population as of Aug. 28.
Another 123,041 have received the first dose for those requiring two doses.
The Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas reported that 833,860 residents have been fully vaccinated as of Aug. 29 comprising 14.95 percent of the target population.
Most provinces in the region are struggling against a surge of cases.
The DOH regional office reported Monday that Western Visayas is a “high-risk” region in terms of reported cases.
Guimaras and Iloilo provinces, and the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod, as well as some towns, are also at high risk.
Aklan, Capiz, and Negros Occidental are “moderate risk” provinces.
On Sunday, 906 new cases were reported in the region, bringing the total to 103,260 cases.
These include 12,163 cases and 2,437 deaths.
From Aug. 13 to 26 alone, 8,968 new cases were recorded with the highest in Iloilo province (3,841), followed by Iloilo City (1,339), and Aklan (852).
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