TACLOBAN CITY – At least 132,205 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to individuals belonging to the priority sectors in Eastern Visayas as of Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
Those vaccinated include all the region’s hospital personnel, the majority of frontline health services providers, persons with comorbidities, and senior citizens, DOH Region 8 information officer Jelyn Lopez-Malibago in a phone interview.
Since March, the region has received 250,970 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, 97.47 percent of which or 244,613 doses have been distributed to health facilities and local government units.
“The arrival of vaccines has been helping our goal to step up the vaccination program, especially those on the priority list,” Malibago said.
Out of the total number of administered jabs, 106,984 were given as the first dose while 25,221 were given as second dose.
The DOH urged more senior citizens (A2) to register with their local government units for them to be inoculated with the COVID-19 jabs.
The region has 82,047 health workers (A1) in the public and private sectors listed on the vaccination priority list.
Those in the A1 group are all employees of provincial health offices and provincial DOH offices regardless of employment status; Department of Education’s healthcare workers assigned in health and nutrition sections; employees of disaster risk reduction management offices tasked to conduct swabbing, contact tracing, and emergency transport of patients; and social workers providing social amelioration and direct services to the public.
Eastern Visayas currently has 19,960 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 754 active cases, 18,905 recoveries and 301 deaths. (PNA) – rir
