City officials recently urged the barangays in the city to prepare and maintain a registry or list of priority groups for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in their respective areas of jurisdiction amidst the ongoing threat of its Delta variant.
Under Resolution No. 405, series of 2021, local legislators stated that the data or information generated from the registry or list from the barangays on the priority groups to be inoculated shall be immediately made available when so required by the local government and other concerned government agencies following the ongoing roll out of the mass vaccination program in various parts of the country.
The council noted that in line with the ongoing aggressive mass vaccination against the dreaded COVID-19 that started in March this year, the city government recently introduced and implemented responsive and effective practices in addressing issues and concerns pertaining to the ongoing mass immunization and inoculation in the different vaccination centers around the city.
The body stipulated that the city’s 128 barangays are all supportive of the plans, programs and campaigns of the local government in the management, control and regulation for the eventual elimination of the COVID-19 in the city.
Further, the council revealed that one essential factor or work to be done in the fight against COVID-19 is a registry or list of priority groups in the barangays who are already vaccinated, including frontline workers in health facilities, both national and local, private and public, health professionals and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, janitors, barangay health workers among others; senior citizens aged 60 years and above; persons with co-morbidities not otherwise included in the preceding categories; frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel and those in working sectors identified by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases as essential during enhanced community quarantine; and indigent population not otherwise included in the preceding categories; teachers, social workers; other government workers; other essential workers; socio-demographic groups at significantly higher risk other than senior citizens and indigent population; Overseas Filipino workers; other remaining workers and the rest of the population.
According to the council, herd immunity or population protection is the most feasible protection from an infectious disease that happens when the population is immune through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.
Under the guidelines crafted by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases, the government needs to vaccinate some 50 percent of the eligible adult population to achieve population protection and at least 70 percent of the population to achieve the desired herd immunity.
With the availability of such a registry list, the council claimed that the exact number of the constituents who were already vaccinated would determine if the barangays already achieved population protection or herd immunity. By Dexter A. See
