Cebu City’s supply of vaccines to run out after Tuesday, June 8

THE supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Cebu City is expected to last only until Tuesday, June 8, 2021.  Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, City Health Department officer-in-charge, said they only have 3,800 doses available and these are all intended for the first dose.

Ibones, in an interview on Sunday, June 6, said they are still waiting for the next delivery of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines from the Department of Health 7.

“We are just relying on the supply coming from the national government,” he said. He hopes it will arrive soon so the City’s vaccine rollout will not be disrupted again. Ibones said the City will resume vaccination on Monday, June 7.

He said all the four vaccination sites in the city – University of Cebu (UC) Banilad campus, Robinsons Galleria, SM Seaside City and UC Senior High School campus – are administering the first dose.

The City has inoculated more than 47,000 individuals, while more than 11,000 have completed their vaccination. The number does not include individuals inoculated under the Project Balik Buhay Vaccination Initiative and workers in hospitals. More than 150,000 individuals have registered for the City’s vaccination program through pabakunata.com.

Meanwhile, data provided by the Cebu City Emergency Operations Center show that there are 455 beds available in the city’s isolation facilities.

At the Cebu City Quarantine Center, which can accommodate patients with severe conditions, only 39 are occupied. The other 121 beds are empty.bThe three remaining operational barangay isolation centers have a total of 247 beds available with only 156 beds occupied, while isolation hotels still have 87 rooms with only 39 beds occupied.

The EOC data also show that the hospitals in the city have a safe occupancy rate of 20.5 percent, as of Friday, June 4. The World Health Organization considers the critical care occupancy alarming if it breaches 60 percent.bAs of Saturday, June 5, Cebu City logged 419 active cases.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March last year, Cebu City, which has a population of nearly a million residents, has recorded a total of 24,454 cases with 23,171 recoveries and 864 mortalities. (JJL)