The city health office (CHO) will extend the stay of vaccination centers in the barangays after observing an increase in the number of people who are eager to get the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine.

During Friday’s online briefer, Dr. Teodoro Yu Jr., CHO medical officer, sought the public’s patience as they began augmenting human resources to serve more people.

“(Due) to the increase, we are extending them (vaccination sites) from one to two weeks,” he said in the vernacular.

In the barangay vaccination sites, the number of people getting inoculated daily is limited depending on the number of vaccine supplies provided by the Department of Health (DOH).

Since most of the business establishments complied with the city’s “no vaccine, no entry” policy that started this month, an upsurge of people wanting to be inoculated was noted.

With this, Yu said the CHO recorded a total of 679,967 vaccinated individuals as of November 18, with 398,691 individuals receiving the first dose, and 281,276 completing their second dose.

Booster shots

Meanwhile, the DOH 10 (Northern Mindanao) earlier urged the public to get the booster Covid-19 vaccine shots once they are made available as they will remain free.

In an online conference, DOH-10 assistant director, Dr. Ellenietta Herundina Ma. Victoria Gamolo, said while researchers are still finding a cure for Covid-19, booster shots can be availed of from the government after the two-dose primary shots.

“Covid-19 may continue around us as an endemic. Having booster shots may become similar to flu vaccines that we get every year, but it is not free,” she said.

Gamolo also said there are ongoing studies on how often we get to have booster Covid-19 vaccines until a definitive cure is available in the market.

On November 16, the DOH national office announced that it would begin rolling out booster shots for health care workers.

Gamolo said for the regions, they are targeting to implement the next phase before the end of this month as they have to prepare the necessary logistics.

“For now, we still have vaccine supply for primary doses. We don’t have the supply for booster shots yet,” she said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jose Llacuna, DOH-10 director, reminded the public that the Covid-19 vaccines are supplementary protection, as there is no absolute protection to date.

“Nonetheless, the guarantee (of the vaccine) is you will not reach a stage of severe (health) crisis (once you get infected with Covid-19), or (be) put into intensive care unit,” he said.

Llacuna said Northern Mindanao has achieved about 32.38 percent out of the 70 percent population protection requirement, constituting about 3.55 million individuals who have been vaccinated. (PNA)