Cebu City (CNN Philippines, March 29) — The Department of Health in Central Visayas will be conducting house-to-house vaccination in 12 areas in Cebu province as part of the three-day special COVID-19 immunization drive beginning Tuesday.
The special vaccination will focus on the towns of Balamban, Bantayan, Barili, Daanbantayan, Dalaguete, Pinamungahan, San Fernando, San Fransisco and Tuburan. The cities of Carcar, Danao and Toledo are also among the 12 priority local government units.
The special vaccination days for Cebu province will be from March 29 to 31, with a target of administering 40,000 doses.
DOH-7 Director Jaime Bernadas on Monday said health workers will go to houses for the first time to vaccinate more people against COVID-19.
“We will be moving around, moving house-to-house campaign for the vaccination of our senior citizens,” he added.
Only 62.8 percent of the target population in Central Visayas is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The DOH’s target is at least 70 percent.
Moreover, data from the DOH-7 show that only 50.9 percent of senior citizens in Central Visayas are fully vaccinated.
Cebu province has the lowest number of senior citizens vaccinated at only 39.8 percent.
The highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu have vaccinated an average of 71 percent of its elderly population.
Bernadas said the challenge is the huge population of Cebu province, making it difficult for health workers to disseminate correct information about the COVID-19 vaccines.
“Senior citizens are left at home and usually at the mercy of tsismis (rumor) and unverified information,” he added.
Health workers from the DOH-7 were deployed to the 12 LGUs a week ago to map out villages and determine the location of unvaccinated senior citizens.
Cebu-based stringer Dale Israel contributed to this report.
