THE MOST vulnerable sector, the elderly, who have not been vaccinated since the program rolled out in the first quarter of the year will be the focus of the city in the coming days. Based on the record of the City Social Welfare and Development Office, there are about 300,000 senior citizens in the city but only 76,472 are documented by the city health to have been given the first dose.
Mayor Sara Duterte said that a mobile vaccination plan for senior citizens who, for whatever reason, were unable to get themselves inoculated. This will augment the 21 vaccination sites currently providing services. She also said that the city is open to partner with organizations for their sectoral vaccination which will make the process faster and more convenient to the people. Universities such as the University of Mindanao and the Ateneo de Davao University have partnered with the city and reached their targets successfully.
Seniors and those with co-morbidities are especially vulnerable to the virus, the reason why it is crucial for them to get inoculated at the soonest time possible. With the Delta variant making its presence felt and wreaking havoc to the health situation in neighboring cities, vaccination can spell the difference between life and death.
The city health reported that as of July 25, at least 330,945 residents have received the first dose of anti-COVID-19 vaccines, 149,122 of them are fully vaccinated. We still have a long way to go before we reach what they call herd immunity. John Hopkins’ School of Public Health said herd immunity is achieved “when most of a population is immune to an infectious disease, this provides indirect protection—or population immunity (also called herd immunity or herd protection)—to those who are not immune to the disease.”
This campaign to reach the elderly, especially those who might be too frail to travel to vaccination sites, can hopefully lower the risk of critical situations that will add more burden to our taxed health system and overworked health personnel.
