Zamboanga’s COVID-19 cases drop as more receive jabs

The number of COVID-19 cases here is on a downward trend as the number of fully vaccinated residents continued to increase, the City Health Office said on Thursday, November 25.

Dr. Dulce Ann Miravite, Zamboanga city health officer, said some 260,266 people have already been fully inoculated in the city.

Of the fully vaccinated, 82,931 are workers from essential sectors while 17,085 are front line health workers.

The CHO also inoculated 55,023 people with comorbidities, 31,836 elderly people, 49,628 indigents, 312 young people whose ages range from 12 to 17, and 7,587 from the general population.

Miravite said 15,864 of those inoculated received single doses of the Janssen vaccines.

Zamboanga’s active COVID-19 cases were also in a downtrend, dropping to 586 from the four-digit 2,199 on October 5.

As of Thursday, Zamboanga registered only 24 newly documented COVID-19 cases, down from the three-digit, single-day cases in previous months.

Zamboanga’s officials said the local government was relentless in its vaccination program.

On Thursday, health workers resumed the vaccination rollouts at the Zamboanga City Integrated Bus Terminal, Centro Latino in Paseo del Mar, and at the Southway Square in downtown Zamboanga. The CHO also opened 27 vaccination centers on the same day.

But it’s still a long way to go for Zamboanga City, which has fully vaccinated only 37% of its 694,696 population.

Health officials, however, are optimistic that with 410,940 people receiving their first jabs, they would hit the target in a month.

Zamboanga Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco called on unvaccinated Zamboangueños to grab the chance to get their free jabs especially during the National Immunization Days on November 29 to December 1.

At the regional level, the Department of Health (DOH) in the Zamboanga Peninsula released on November 25, Thursday, its regional case bulletin as of November 21, 2021.

Zamboanga City, however, still registered the highest number of active COVID-19 cases, at 609, in the Zamboanga Peninsula as of November 21, data from the Department of Health (DOH) in western Mindanao showed.

DOH data showed Zamboanga del Norte trailing behind with 480 active cases, Zamboanga del Sur with 163, Isabela City with 121, and Zamboanga Sibugay with 59 active cases. – Rappler.com

Frencie Carreon is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship