DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Oct. 25 (PIA) -- The Dumaguete City Health Office (CHO) has reported that 74 of the 79 COVID-19 deaths or 93.7% recorded were unvaccinated against coronavirus.

Records showed that these deaths occurred when the vaccination program was in full swing from May 1 to Oct. 20.

City Health Officer Dr. Maria Sarah Talla said most of the five vaccinated individuals or 6.3% who died from COVID-19 were senior citizens and had comorbidities.

Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo urged the public to register for vaccination in their barangay health center or online while the city has the supply of vaccines and to get vaccinated when called for their schedule to save more lives.

It is recorded that around 43,621 city residents have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Oct. 22.

Of the 111 deaths linked to COVID-19 (from Jan. 30, 2020 to Oct. 20, 2021) 83 of the fatalities were senior citizens aged 60 years old or older while 28 deaths were between 21-59 years old.

Of the 111 fatalities, 32 deaths were recorded from Jan. 30, 2020 to April 30, 2021 prior to the full rollout of vaccination and 79 deaths were registered from May 1 to Oct. 20 after the vaccination rollout.  

Dumaguete City has a COVID-19 case fatality rate of 2.86% which is lower in Central Visayas at 3.91%.

The CHO has started vaccinating against COVID-19 those belonging to the rest of the adult population or ROAP (formerly categorized as priority group B and C).

This is in response to the directive of Remollo to open an additional vaccination site to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccination rollout with the allocation of 50,000 more doses of Pfizer vaccines.

So far, 43,621 eligible residents (43% of the target population) have already been vaccinated by the CHO using 77,270 doses of Sinovac, Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Janssen, Sinopharm, and Moderna vaccines as of Oct. 22.

According to the DOH circular, ROAP is the "eligible adult population (18 years old and above) who are not categorized as part of Priority Group A and/or were formerly categorized as Priority Groups B and C."

To avoid overcrowding and to maintain order, only those who registered and with confirmed schedule will be allowed to enter the vaccination sites.

Walk-ins are discouraged. (JCT/PIA7 Negros Oriental)