Of the figure, 93.33 percent are fully vaccinated while 10.71 percent received their first dose, said Dr. Chris Sorongon, deputy for medical data and analysis of EOC-TF.
But Sorongon said the city could not yet claim herd immunity unless the Department of Health (DOH) said so.
Dr. Mary Jean Juanico, head of the infectious disease cluster of DOH-Western Visayas Center for Health Development, said the agency cannot declare yet that Bacolod has already reached herd immunity since the number of inoculated individuals in Negros Occidental is still less than 70 percent, he added.
The EOC-TF official said that most of the workers in the city are living in nearby towns and cities where there are still residents that were not yet inoculated.
Sorongon added that the City Government already reached the 420,000 target population to be inoculated against Covid-19.
Bacolod’s Covid-19 vaccination program will resume on January 3, 2022 and they expect to administer 40,000 doses of vaccines for the second dose.
Despite this, he said the public should not be complacent because Covid-19 is still there, saying “we should continue to observe the minimum health protocols as well as the using of face masks and social distancing to prevent the spread of Covid-19.”
Sorongon said fully vaccinated individuals can now also avail themselves of their booster shots after three months of their primary vaccination against Covid-19.
In 2022, the EOC-TF will concentrate for the booster shots where all adults aged 18 and above are eligible to receive a single-dose of Covid-19 vaccine at least three months after completing their primary dose of either AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNtech, Sinovac or Sputnik vaccine, Sorongon said.
Those administered with the single-shot Johnson & Johnson, on the other hand, are qualified to get a booster after two months.
The EOC-TF is also facilitating their master lists for priority group A2 to A3 or senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, a top priority for the booster shots.
“We will prioritize them since we are anticipating the entry of the Omicron variant and they are high risk,” Sorongon said.
He said they are also waiting for the supply of additional vaccines to inoculate minors aged 5 to 11 years old in January next year.
He added they will use Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years old and it is different from the Pfizer vaccine that is being used for adults which only contain 0.2 ml dose.
Sorongon said that for now, Bacolod recorded single-digit of Covid-19 cases and it only shows that the city’s Covid response and vaccination program are in place.
