KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 16 July) – Around 85,000 individuals in Soccsksargen or Region 12, which is populated by at least 4.3 million people, have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), data from the regional Department of Health – Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD Soccsksargen) showed.
A total of 263,350 doses have been administered as of the July 12 data that was obtained Friday from the agency.
Of the total, 179,009 received the first dose and 84,341 got the second dose, it showed.
So far, the vaccination program in the region includes the population priority A1 (active frontline healthcare workers), A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with co-morbidities).
For the first dose, 62,832 individuals from the A1 category received the anti-COVID-19 vaccines, 63,523 from A2 and 52,654 from A3, according to DOH-CHD Soccsksargen.
For the second dose and considered fully-vaccinated, 49,067 individuals from the A1 category were injected with the anti-COVID-19 vaccines, 27,369 from A2 and 7,915 from A3.
Arjohn Gangoso, DOH-12 health education and promotion officer, said the vaccines made available by the national government to Soccsksargen are CoronaVac and Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.
CoronaVac is manufactured by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech while Oxford/ AstraZeneca is manufactured by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca plc.
“You need to get two doses of these vaccines to be fully vaccinated,” he said.
Based on the protocols for fully-vaccinated individuals from the InterAgency Task Force, an individual shall be considered as having been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 at least two weeks after having received the second dose in a two-dose series, or at least two weeks after having received a single-dose vaccine like Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.
As of Thursday evening, the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the region stood at 24,462, with 20,717 recoveries, 785 deaths and 2,956 active cases, the DOH-12 COVID-19 tracker showed.
There were more recoveries than new confirmed COVID-19 cases at 255 and 133, respectively, on Thursday, it added.
In the region, South Cotabato has the most active COVID-19 cases at 1,161, followed by North Cotabato with 577, General Santos with 576, Sarangani with 496 and Sultan Kudarat with 146. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
