BY OLIVER T. BACCAY, PIA
TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan (May 4)—The Department of Health (DOH) Region 2 has resorted to the creation of a vaccination team network to augment and assist existing teams in the field.
Joyce Maquera, DOH Vaccination focal person, said that the region has already inoculated 48,095 individuals since March 2021 with either CoronaVac and AstraZeneca vaccines which recorded a 67.32 percent consumption rate only.
She also said that there were only 36,030 health workers inoculated from the 76,188 targeted individuals master listed under the A1 priority.
“The factors identified affecting low consumption coverage include the delay or disruption of vaccinations due to lack of manpower. Moreover, some of the vaccination teams in the municipalities were also exposed or infected by the virus,” Maquera said.
She said the multitasking or overlapping of roles of the healthcare workers also affects the vaccination rollout as they attend to Covid-19 related activities like contact tracing and routine services at their respective isolation facilities.
With this, Maquera said that teams composed of healthcare providers and support staff from different government and private agencies will be created and be deployed to the areas of concern in the region.
She said the DOH, in partnership with the Office of the Civil Defense and other member agencies of the Regional Vaccination Operation Center, will map human resources who could be part of the network.
Dr. Faith Albreto, DOH assistant regional director, said he is hopeful that with the augmentation of vaccination teams, the inoculation schedules will be smoothly conducted in different parts of the region.
She also called on targeted individuals to submit themselves for the vaccination, especially those who were master listed and prioritized in the municipal, city or barangay levels to increase the vaccination rate of the region.