Puerto Princesa City has reached its highest administered jabs last August 5 with at least 3,500 vaccinated individuals accumulated from its city and rural area vaccination drive.
Dr. Ricardo Panganiban, head of the City Health Office (CHO) and the Puerto Princesa City COVID-19 Vaccination Council Chairman (PPC-COVAC), confirmed on August 6, 2021 that an estimate of 1,500 first doses from City Coliseum site, 300 second doses from SM City site, and 1,700 doses from Brgy. Cabayugan comprised the final count.
Individuals from A2 to A5 were inoculated with brands ranging from Sinovac, AstraZeneca, to Janssen.
This tally in a single day was made possible due to synchronous inoculation of far-flung barangays along with that of the urban area. This expansion of vaccination program has been carried out since last week of June.
“’Yung unang punta namin was in Luzviminda, twice po kami doon pumunta. Then, no’ng last Tuesday [ay] Panggangan lang ang napuntahan namin which was supposed to be Marufinas and Panggangan kaya lang malaki talaga ‘yung alon then doon na po pumunta ‘yung ibang mga taga-Marufinas. Then…[August 5 ay]sa Cabayugan…,” Dr. Panganiban says.
He also pointed out challenges faced by this objective such as the distance, unideal set-up for vaccination, and hesitancy. Despite of these, the vaccination pushes through.
“…sa Monday sa San Rafael, sa Tuesday ay sa Brgy. Manalo then sa Wednesday sa Macarascas,” he adds.
Dr. Panganiban clarifies that these are the “clustered places” that they go to but residents from neighboring areas are assisted by the city government in terms of transportation so that they can reach the designated vaccination site.
Meanwhile, inoculation activities in the urban area continue with A1.8-A4 as its current categories.
In larger scale, latest reports showed Puerto Princesa is leading MIMAROPA with its 9.47% vaccination rate, a figure triple the 3.3% national average.
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