THE city is working on ramping up its mobile vaccination efforts to reach senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) who are unable to go to the vaccination sites in person.
According to Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, some 12,000 seniors in the city remain unvaccinated and are yet to receive even the first dose of any of the vaccines available in the city.
As such, the city is now pushing for wider coverage in its mobile vaccination efforts, which started late in May of this year helmed by the City Health Services Office (CHSO).
Barangay officials have been asked to coordinate with the CHSO to organize batches of seniors and other non-ambulatory or bedridden residents who are yet to be vaccinated. Under the current directives, barangay officials are tasked to organize the batches of at least 20 residents before the city can dispatch a mobile vaccination team.
Magalong added that seniors and PWDs should coordinate with their barangays and join the unvaccinated batches in order to receive the vaccine near their own homes.
However, Magalong also added that seniors and PWDs can still receive vaccinations at the established sites and can avail themselves of special priority lanes.
Magalong also added that the city will be establishing more vaccination sites in the city to keep up with the growing demand for vaccination among residents.
The City Health Services Office (CHSO) Mobile Vaccination (Movacc) team should be on their toes and convert to rapid deployment teams once a group of at least ten home-bound patients are listed ready for vaccination.
Said team is supposed to have a ready bag or kit of needed materials, and one hour notice to deploy, Mayor Benjamin Magalong instructed City Health Services Office head Dr. Rowena Galpo during the regular management committee meeting last week.
Bedridden individuals, persons with disability (PWD), and senior citizens who could not go to vaccination sites can avail of said services.
Assistant City Health Services Officer Celia Flor Brillantes leads the team which valiantly treks to the farthest barangays to vaccinate incapacitated individuals. The program was launched in May with the group composed of a screener, councilor, vaccinator, an ambulance driver and a volunteer nurse for the HSO team.
Movacc patients need to be registered with bakuna.baguio.gov.ph, coordinate with the barangay health emergency response team (BHERTs) for vaccination schedules which is consolidated through the district health office.
Motion and time studies prove that a properly-equipped rapid deployment team could vaccinate as much patients in the same area in a day. –with reports by Julie G. Fianza
By Angel Castillo|August 4, 2021