Visayas vax operations center ready for first community vaccination

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

CEBU CITY --The Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) is now ready to undertake its first COVID community vaccination in the Visayas with the successful holding of the pilot testing of first COVID community vaccination, Thursday, April 8 at the Mandaue City Sports Complex with the medical front liners and senior citizens.

The local government unit of Mandaue City followed the guideline handbook prepared by the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) for the establishment of vaccination sites.

“Mandaue City's adherence to the handbook of community vaccination center created by the Visayas COVID-19 Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) shows that the manual when used properly can lead to successful implementation of vaccination roll out,” Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPA) Undersecretary Anthony Gerard Gonzales said.

Gonzales added that the VVOC, through IATF-Visayas Chief Implementer retired Gen. Melquiades Feliciano prepared the vaccination guideline handbook to help local government units set up efficient vaccination centers.

He hoped that the success of the pilot test will inspire the LGUs in the Visayas to adopt it.  Gonzales lauded the efforts of IATF-Visayas chief implementer Gen Mel Feliciano, DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas and the Mandaue City LGU for stepping up in creating a benchmark for community vaccination.

Gen. Feliciano declared the pilot testing of the Mandaue Sports Complex vaccination center as a success.  The flow that was set from the registration area up to the post vaccination area met the time and motion requirements. In its full capacity, it can vaccinate 800-900 individuals in 8 hours or 20,000 doses in a month, Feliciano said.

The vaccination center will be replicated in similar sites in Mandaue City so it could meet the time frame of four to six months vaccination program, Feliciano added that when the vaccines are available for the general population, Mandaue City will be ready to execute the program,” Feliciano said.

In an assessment meeting of the pilot testing of the community vaccination center, the VVOC team discussion focused on the improvement of the process and the storage handling to ensure smooth localized vaccination operations.

It was agreed that the VVOC process which was undertaken in Mandaue City serve as the benchmark to be followed by other LGUs in the Visayas.  Dr. Dominga Obenza of Mandaue City Emergency Operations Center noted that doing the vaccine roll out on a suitable area as a pilot setting has tremendously improved the overall process. (Photos: OPAV)