WHILE Cagayan de Oro City’s high vaccination rate is reflective of its sustained Alert Level 1 status, the same cannot be said of other local governments in Misamis Oriental, said Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno.
“While I’m thankful for the efforts of our City Hall bureaucracy in sustaining our vaccination campaign and Alert Level 1 status, other local governments in Misamis Oriental like Gingoog City (are merely riding on/benefiting from) the Alert Level 1 status in the province,” Moreno said during his ‘Gikan sa Katawhan, Ibalik sa Katawhan’ program today.
Unlike the neighboring local governments that stepped up their vaccination campaign to at least 80 percent, Gingoog City’s vaccination campaign had yet to reach that level about one year and three months since the government launched its nationwide vaccination campaign. Misamis Oriental achieved Alert Level 1 status a few weeks after Cagayan de Oro City reached that milestone last April.
During that period Moreno ordered the deployment of City Health Office teams to select local governments in the province to provide assistance to their respective vaccination campaigns.
In lamenting Gingoog City’s low vaccination rate, Moreno said it’s imperative that more local governments in the province provide protection to their constituents against Covid-19.
“The interaction (and travel to and from Gingoog City to Cagayan de Oro City and vice versa is still minimal). We all know by now that the vaccines don’t grant immunity to the recipients but prevent the symptoms from worsening (in) those who were vaccinated but contracted the virus….More Covid-19 patients in hospitals mean more beds and more mechanical ventilators being used,” Moreno said.
As of June 6, Cagayan de Oro City’s average health care utilization rate rose to three percent from a low of one percent for the past seven weeks. This came as Northern Mindanao Medical Center received nine Covid-19 patients in its Emerging-Re-emerging Infectious Diseases section of whom two are Kagay-anons, four from Misamis Oriental, one from Iligan City, and one each from Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur provinces. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)