Davao City to launch Bakuna Nights

To further boost its vaccination drive, the City Government of Davao is set to hold a two-day dry run this week for the Bakuna Nights, an evening vaccination program, to cater to Dabawenyos who cannot go to vaccination sites during the day.

During an interview on Wednesday, Davao City COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser said that the dry-run will be held on  September 23 and September 24.

The Davao City health official said that the dry run will only be limited to individuals who missed their second dose of the Sinovac vaccine. Once they were able to polish the procedure and address possible glitches, they will then cater to Dabawenyos who are up for the first dose.

She added that they target to inoculate around 800 to 1,000 Dabawenyos during the dry run. 

Vaccinees are advised to bring their Safe DQR card, a pen, and IDs.

Speaking over the Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR), Schlosser said that the nightly inoculation is designed to give chance to individuals to get vaccinated even at night because of their busy schedules during the day. This is another strategy of the city government to speed up the vaccination rollout.

“Dugay dugay na hinaing sa ubang sector nga dili gyud sila makahigayon ug adto sa atong mga vaccination sites during buntag nga vaccination rollout. One of the ways forward nga nakit-an sa atong vaccination cluster is of course, with the help of the COVID-19 Task Force, naga propose ta karon ug ginatawag nato og Bakuna Nights (This has been the dilemma of other sectors, saying that they can’t avail of the vaccination rollout during daytime. One of the ways that the vaccination cluster sees to address this is of course, with the help of the COVID-19 Task Force, is the proposed this what we call Bakuna Nights),” Schlosser said.

She added that the proposed time for Bakuna Nights will be from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. But they will have a cut-off time of 8 p.m. so vaccinees should be at the vaccination hub before that time.

Based on the initial plan, the Bakuna Nights will be rolled out in two hubs – at the San Roque Elementary School in Obrero and Almendras Gym.

“We will be conducting night shift vaccination solely for those maglisod ug adto sa mga vaccination sites during the day labin na sa mga sectoral population (who are having difficulty to visit the vaccination sites during the day, especially those in the sectoral population),” she said.

She also reiterated her call to Dabawenyos to do away with vaccine brand preference, saying that all the vaccines that the city is giving are safe and effective.

Based on the weekly report of COVID-19 cases from September 12 to 18, Schlosser said that the city reported a total of 3,632 positive patients and 91.85 percent of this is unvaccinated. She also noted that of the vaccinated infected patients, they only manifested mild symptoms while some are asymptomatic.

“Nagapasabot nang data nag ingon nga kung vaccinated mas naa kay protection against COVID-19 bisan unsang klaseng brand of vaccine (This data only goes to show that if you are vaccinated, you already have protection against COVID-18 regardless of the brand),” she said.CIO