Seniors citizens in QC’s District 2 receive J&J jabs

Senior citizens in District 2 of Quezon City were inoculated with Johnson and Johnson’s (J&J) Janssen vaccine in a one-day rollout on Wednesday, July 28.



Mayor Joy Belmonte said District 2 is the most densely populated area in the city and its senior citizens must be prioritized in the vaccination drive against COVID-19.



“District 2 has the most number of underprivileged communities, which makes them the most vulnerable to the transmission of the virus and the least able to afford hospital care,” Belmonte said.



“The decision to focus this vaccine supply on District 2 is based on sound evidence, including the number of cases per hundred thousand, number of deaths, and other factors like minimal health-seeking behavior, affecting the senior citizens in the area,” she added.



District 2 has 13, 834 out of the 106,137 total COVID-19 cases in the city as of July 26. The number has increased by 21% over the past 14-day period, according to the Quezon City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU).



“Considering the population and the current case count in District 2, virus transmission is highly probable especially with the threat of the Delta variant,” CESU head Rolly Cruz said.



“A single case can lead to multiple cases due to the fact that there are many vulnerable individuals, and quarantine protocols are hard to implement because the houses are clustered,” he added.



Dr. Cruz also said that District 2 has the highest case fatality rate among all districts in the city.



Out of the 217 individuals who have died in the district, 113 or 52% of deaths were aged 60 and above.



After the one-day rollout, the city government will continue inoculating the senior citizens in other districts.