DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 03 June) – The city government of Davao opened Tuesday its mega hub for COVID-19 vaccination at The Enderun Tent in Azuela Cove on Tuesday, a local health official said.
Dr. Ashley Lopez, acting head of City Health Office, said during his program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) that the city now has 21 vaccination sites.
He said the 2,000-square meter facility could accommodate 1,000 vaccine recipients daily.
The Azuela Cove, a 25-hectare waterside development project in Davao City of Aviana Development Corporation, is a joint venture between real estate giant Ayala Land and homegrown The Alcantara Group of Companies.
Lopez said he hopesthere would be no delay in the delivery of fresh supplies of anti-COVID-19 vaccines to the city to avoid interruption in the inoculation program.
He said the city’s supply of vaccines is running low but added that it received from Department of Health-Davao additional 6,000 doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine developed by Beijing-based biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac.
But Lopez added that National Task Force Against COVID 19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. committed to deliver around 200,000 of doses from Pfizer, on June 6 and 7.
Last Monday, the city government started vaccination for people belonging to A3 priority list. These include those aged 18 to 59 years with illnesses or comorbidities such as chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, malignancy, diabetes, obesity, chronic liver disease, neurologic disease, and immunodeficiency disease.
Mayor Sara Duterte said the local government targets to complete the vaccination of at least 1.2 million individuals by November to achieve “herd immunity” before the year ends.
But Duterte also acknowledged the constraints on the supply of vaccines in the country.
“As of now, there is scarcity in the supply of vaccines all over the world. We still depend on the vaccines from the national government. We have already informed them (national government) that we intend to finish hopefully by November,” she said.
Once given more supply of vaccines, Duterte said the local government targets to inoculate 10,000 individuals daily.
She said the city government has 13,000 regular and contractual workers while the Department of Education-Davao has around 12,000. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)