By Rey Anthony Chiu | 11:35 PM October 09, 2021
Even if Bohol gets the same number of vaccines in the next seven months, Bohol is still at least a million doses short of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines to get to the goal of attaining herd immunity in Bohol.
In the Provincial Government’s COVID 19 Vaccination Report as shared by the Bohol Inter Agency ask Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases dates October 4, local authorities said Bohol has received from the national government some 467,892 doses of Sinovac, Astrazeneca, Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, Sinopharm and Johnson and Johnsons since March 6.
It was in March 6, 2021 when Bohol received its first batch of Sinovac Covid vaccines, and on that day, the provincial rollout of the national government vaccination program started.
And since that day, Bohol has been dependent on the vaccines that would come from the national government, except for some local government units like Tagbilaran City here, which has allocated funds for their own vaccination program to hit the herd immunity as fast as they can.
Other than Tagbilaran City, Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), in partnership with the Filipino Chamber of Commerce and Industry also embarked on their own vaccination program for their workers essential to the operation of their businesses and industries to increase consumer confidence and rouse the economy.
It was not clear of the vaccines which the City is buying and the ones sourced out by the BCCI are included in the BIATF count.
But with less than 500,000 doses of vaccines after seven months, in another 7 months, Bohol could still be in the one million vaccines mark.
With the local population reaching 1,394,329 as of the lasts census by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the target is to get to 70% of the local population, shared BIATF spokesperson Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez.
Seventy percent of 1.4 million is 976,000 Boholanos needing two doses of the Covid vaccines to be fully protected means some 1.5 million doses of the vaccines.
To date, Bohol has sourced out only 467,892 doses in seven months.
Assuming that the national government sends again the same amount of vaccines in the next seven months, then Bohol would still be somewhere between 40 to 50% of its total vaccination target by the election in May of 2022.
At the same accomplishment that Bohol is achieving given its dependence of the national government in its procurement of the vaccines, it would take another year and two months at most from May 2022, before Bohol could get its herd immunity. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)