Health official: Vaccination slows down Covid-19 transmission in Davao City

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THE Davao City Covid-19 Task Force is seeing a slow down of Covid-19 transmission in the city due to the city’s massive vaccination rollout against the highly infectious virus.

Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser said in a radio interview on Wednesday, October 6, 2021, that the vaccination strategy of the local government is a huge factor in putting the spread under control, apart from prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration.

“We have to celebrate little achievements like this na gamay atong positivity rate kasi dili ikalimod na ang atong Covid-19 Task Forcing is doing ways, mga strategies to be implemented at the ground… just to make sure that all the medical and safety protocols are followed,” Schlosser said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.

She said this does not mean for the public to be complacent in observing the minimum health protocols, but instead to encourage them to be vaccinated.

She emphasized that vaccination, including achieving herd immunity, plays a big role in cutting the chain of infection.

“Dako siya og factor (It is a huge factor.) The data shows na katong mga (that those) infected individuals are unvaccinated. We have to attribute this to lack of vaccination sa mga na-infection. (to those infected.) It goes to show na kung vaccinated ang tao, dako gyud og chance na maproteksyonan (that if a person is vaccinated, there is a huge chance of protection) against Covid-19 and other variants,” Schlosser said.

According to the Davao City Vaccination Cluster as of October 2, 2021, the city already has 620,178 fully vaccinated individuals, which means they have received their second dose. A total of 742,371 doses were jabbed for the first dose, or 51.69 percent to achieve herd immunity.

The city is targeting to achieve 1.2 million fully vaccinated individuals to achieve herd immunity.

Since October 3, the recorded Covid-19 cases in the city had decreased below 200. This is a huge decrease from the peak of 700 new cases in a single day in September this year.

Aside from the downward of cases, the hospital utilization rate had also decreased.

Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), the city’s main Covid-19 referral hospital, had noted a decrease in patient admission.

In September, both SPMC’s intensive care unit (ICU) beds and ward beds had been 100-percent occupied.

In the October 5 bulletin, SPMC’s ICU beds had an 85.59-percent utilization rate or 95 out of 111 beds occupied, while 361 out of the 517 ward beds had been utilized, or a utilization rate of 69.83 percent.

Covid-19 beds utilization rate in private hospitals had also decreased.

According to the Department of Health-Davao Region data as of October 5, 72 out of the 239 ward beds had been occupied, while nine out of 13 ICU beds were occupied.

Data from the Covid-19 Task Force shows that as of October 3, Davao City has de-escalated from High Risk to Moderate Risk LGU Risk Classification, with an average daily attack rate (Adae) of 12.74 percent from the previous Adar of 22.22 percent reported last September 20.

Schlosser said the data shows that the city’s implementation on the ground is effective, however, this should not be a reason for complacency.

“Dili ni siya naga encourage sa katawhan nga magpabaya na ta, magkumpyansa na ta. Dili na ta magpabakuna, dili na ta magfollow og minimum public health standards. Padayon gihapon atoang lakang in terms of health protection sa mga tao, padayon gihapon atong pagtawag sa mga katawhan to follow public health standards,” she said.

(This does not encourage people to have their guards down, to be complacent, not to get vaccinated, not to follow minimum public health standards. We will continue with our initiatives for people’s health protection, we continue to call on everyone to follow public health standards.) (With reports from CIO)

SunStar Davao

SunStar Davao

SunStar Davao is Davao City's most sought after community content provider in both print and online. It is part of the SunStar news network in the Philippines. Sun.Star Davao started as a bi-weekly newspaper Peryodiko Dabaw in December 1985 by Elpidio G. Damaso as the so-called alternative press during the end days of the Marcos dictatorship. It started publishing five times a week the following year and was relaunched as Ang Peryodiko Dabaw on September 7, 1987, marking the entry of new investors and its use of desktop publishing, while its Davao City competitors were still using letterpress.

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