‘VAXX TO THE MAX’: City health office mulls ‘re-intensified’ COVID vaccine campaign

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The Iloilo City Health Office (ICHO) will be campaigning anew for vaccination and booster shot administration against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), amid the continuing surge of cases in April 2023.

Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna announced the move in a press conference Monday, after revealing that new COVID cases in the city this month totaled 84 so far.

Fortuna cited that ICHO’s data on vaccinations indicated an “almost 40 percent” booster shot coverage, with a regional accomplishment rate of 12 percent if factoring in other provinces and Bacolod City.

But he did not state whether this referred to the overall total population, the total population of those eligible for COVID vaccination, or the total number of those who had been fully-vaccinated for the primary series vaccinations.

“We saw that there was a need to increase our coverage of booster doses. […] What is important [here] is that we are going after the fully vaccinated senior citizens because we want to reach at least 80 percent. We are now at 79 percent,” Fortuna remarked.

The ICHO has secured approval for the extension of the shelf life of the previous stock of Pfizer vaccines, as well as the recent arrival of new stock.

He said that COVID vaccination coverage, particularly for senior citizens, was a significant consideration for the Alert Level status of an area.

The national government on Sunday, April 23, announced the city will remain under Alert Level 1 for COVID, despite the rise in COVID cases.

“In the current [COVID] alert levels [system], they consider the vaccination status of the general population, plus [that of] the senior citizens, so we must have 70 to 85 percent of the projected population [vaccinated] so that we get de-escalated [on the alert level system],” Fortuna explained.

Adults aged 18 to 59 years old have the highest primary series coverage in the city at 146.71 percent, and 49.61 percent booster coverage, with 14.76 percent regional booster accomplishment.

Minors aged 12 to 18 years old have a 95.71 percent primary series coverage, but have a really low booster turnout at 0.30 percent.

For senior citizens or those 60 years old and above, there is a 78.59 percent accomplishment rate for primary series and 38.90 percent for boosters, making up 15.33 percent of the region’s booster rate.

Meanwhile, children aged 5 to 11 years old have a low full vaccination rate of 23.03 percent.

This month’s total of new COVID cases is already close to December 2022’s total tally (99), almost double that of last month (44), and more than double that of last January (34) and February (23).

The increase in cases in the city is backed by its positivity rate, which rose to 7.08 percent on April 23 from 1.70 percent on April 1.

For a refresher, the positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who test positive for COVID among the overall number of people who have been tested.

Since January, the city has had a total of 187 cases, with 5 new cases and 3 new recoveries on Sunday, and only 2 deaths so far this year.