Manila nears target herd immunity
People should understand why I say ‘come hell or come water, we will not stop vaccinating our people,’ and mind you, it is a Herculean job injecting, encoding, recording, interviewing people before they are finally given their dose
The Manila local government is nearing its target for herd or population immunity based on its recent vaccination record, which has now reached 811,998 individuals, as of 26 July.
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso, citing a report by Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna and Manila Health Department (MHD) chief Dr. Arnold “Poks” Pangan who are on top of the city’s mass vaccination program, said of the total number, 464,903 have been fully vaccinated or have received both vaccine doses.
Meanwhile, the total number of vaccines administered now total 1,240,588.
Lacuna said the city needs to fully vaccinate 70 percent of its population of about 1.8 million to achieve herd immunity.
The Manila mayor said the Department of Health informed him the city needs to fully vaccinate at least 800,000 individuals in order to achieve local herd immunity.
Herd immunity is protection that is achieved when a sufficient percentage of a certain population has become immune to infection which, in turn, reduces the possibility of infection for those who do not have immunity.
“This is the result of our aggressive fight against Covid-19 as we face another Covid-19 mutated virus, the Delta variant, which is deadlier than the SARS Covid. People should understand why I say ‘come hell or come water, we will not stop vaccinating our people,’ and mind you, it is a Herculean job injecting, encoding, recording, interviewing people before they are finally given their dose,” Domagoso explained.
As this developed, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) is the latest vaccination site being utilized by the City of Manila.
Domagoso and Lacuna personally visited last Monday the first day of vaccination at the UST practice gym, where they were met by Pangan, MHD assistant chief Dr. Ed Santos and UST officials, headed by Fr. Richard Ang, its rector.
Herd immunity is protection that is achieved when a sufficient percentage of a certain population has become immune to infection which, in turn, reduces the possibility of infection for those who do not have immunity.
The Manila officials profusely thanked the UST officials and assured them the effort will go a long way in helping the city government vaccinators and residents have a comfortable, spacious and open-air safe area where the mass inoculation may be held.
On the first day of vaccination at UST, a total of 2,000 vaccines were administered by MHD personnel, who were assisted by barangay authorities and personnel from the Manila Disaster Risk Reduction Office under Arnel Angeles.
Those who received their first dose were from the A2 and A3 priority groups, or senior citizens and persons with comorbidities, respectively.
Other designated vaccination venues include 18 public schools spread all over Manila’s six districts and four shopping malls.
They operate from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., or a total of 14 hours, rain or shine, and even during holidays and weekends, when vaccine allotment from the national government is available.