METRO Cebu continues to suffer from low turnout of Covid-19 vaccinees.
The October 7, 2021 report of the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) showed that only 5,838 individuals were vaccinated out of the 19,692 target number of vaccinees that day.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the VVOC, said this is less than 30 percent of the target vaccinees.
Cebu has been seeing low turnouts since September due to vaccine hesitancy, which could be the result of brand preference or fear of vaccination.
The national government has said it would extract some of the vaccine supplies of local government units (LGU) with slow distribution and allocate these to LGUs with faster rollout instead, Loreche said.
As of Oct. 7, the VVOC reported that Metro Cebu had administered a total of 2,166,849 doses of Covid-19 vaccines with 1,151,000 for the first dose and 1,015,849 for the second dose.
On the other hand, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has released updated protocols for the entry of fully and partially vaccinated as well as unvaccinated individuals from Green List and Yellow List countries to the Philippines effective Oct. 8, 2021.
The VVOC announced in its daily briefing that the IATF released this new resolution on Oct. 7, 2021.
Loreche said this policy provides a little incentive for the entry of the vaccinated.
“We cannot forever shut out people, and we cannot forever say equal mobility for those who are vaccinated and unvaccinated,” said Loreche.
Under the new IATF protocols, fully vaccinated individuals coming from the Green List (low risk) and Yellow List (moderate risk) countries and territories will undergo a facility-based quarantine only until the release of their negative result of a RT-PCR test taken on the fifth day of their arrival in the country. They can then continue their quarantine at home until the 10th day with the arrival day counted as the first day.
Fully vaccinated foreign nationals, on the other hand, are required to pre-book accommodation of at least six days.
Partially vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals coming from Green List and Yellow List areas will undergo facility-based quarantine until the release of their negative result of the RT-PCR test taken on the seventh day of their arrival in the country. They will then continue their quarantine at home until the 14th day with the arrival day counted as the first day.
Partially vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are required to secure a pre-booked accommodation of at least eight days.
Under the previous guidelines, fully vaccinated inbound travelers from “green list” countries had to undergo seven-day facility-based quarantine, with RT-PCR testing for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19), to be done on the fifth day.
On the other hand, those not from “green list” countries or not fully vaccinated had to undergo 10-day facility-based quarantine, with an RT-PCR test on the seventh day, and an additional four days of home quarantine.
Loreche said the swab test upon arrival protocol still applies on the island of Cebu. (KFD)
