Around 1.2 million Dabawenyos are now fully vaccinated or completed the second dose, representing 92.9 percent of the target population protection, the Davao City Vaccination Cluster report showed.

The target population for herd immunity is at 1,299,894.

Based on the data from the Vaccination cluster as of January 15, the city government has already administered anti-Covid-19 vaccines to a total of 1,207,885 individuals or 92.92 percent of the target population protection for the second dose.

The city government has also administered the first dose to a total of 1,268,468 individuals or 97.58 percent of the target population protection.

A total of 121,050 Dabawenyos have also availed of the booster dose.

Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte, during the Special Hour Interview on the Davao City Disaster Radio Monday, said that anti-Covid vaccination is one of the city government’s mechanisms to face the 4th wave of the coronavirus disease.

The mayor was thankful for the hard work of the vaccine cluster and district health offices.

“Additional na trabaho gyud na sa ilaha. They are called to be part of Covid-19 response. They are also called to be part of the vaccination cluster sa atoang Covid-19. Kinahanglan ta magpasalamat sa ilahang pagserbisyo nila sa atoa dinhi sa Davao City (It is additional job for them. They are called to be part of Covid-19 response. They are also called to be part of the vaccination cluster for Covid-19. We need to thank them for their service to us here in Davao City),” she said.

The city mayor said that the city also continues to conduct counseling as one of the proactive measures to convince people to be vaccinated.

“The proactive thing to do nga ginabuhat nato sa City government of Davao is that naga counseling ta sa dili gusto magpabakuna. Gina-explain nato sa ilaha ang benefits sa bakuna, ginatubag nato ang ilang mga questions by the experts nga naa dinhi sa atoang health group sa City Health Office. Pagpasabot sa mga tao mao na atong ginabuhat instead of exclusion because samot nga dili magpabakuna ang mga tao kung anaon sila (The proactive thing that we are doing in the City Government of Davao is that we conduct counselling for those who do not want to be vaccinated. We explain to them the benefits of the vaccine. We answer their questions through the experts in our health group in the CHO. We explain it to people instead of doing exclusion because that will only prompt them all the more not to avail vaccines),” she said.

Mayor Sara said that those who opted not to be vaccinated should not be subjected to exclusion in “no vaccination, no service schemes’ because, in the first place, they were given the option not to get vaccinated.

She said that public health experts worldwide require only 70 percent of the population to be vaccinated to achieve population protection.

She said the city government is aiming to reach the target population protection and move to the next step.

“Naa tay deficit na 31,000 na individuals {for the first dose]. We need to counsel 31,000. Once we achieve that 100 percent of that 70 percent of the population in Davao City, that’s it,” she said.

She added that the remaining number will have to be counseled because these are those who are not willing to go to vaccination sites, mobile vaccination, or even drive-thru vaccination. CIO