Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Wednesday, Nov. 3, said the local government has already exceeded its target COVID-19 vaccinations for the adult population.
"Actually, naabot na namin yung target natin na 1.7 million (we already reached our 1.7 million target) which is 80 percent of our adult population no. Now, actually umabot na nga tayo ng 1.9 million doon sa may first doses na (we achieved 1.9 million for the first dose). So, that's actually already 110 percent of our target, and that's 90 percent of our adult population," Belmonte said in an interview with ANC.
Belmonte added that the local government has already started inoculating its young population (12-17 years old) which it is targeting to finish by the end of November.
"Ngayon nagsisimula na tayo sa atin pong mga kabataan (Now, we are starting with the minors) and we have about 240,000 12 to 17 year olds that we have to vaccinate. Kung matatapos natin ito maabot na natin yung tinatawag nating herd immunity(If we finish this, we will be able to reach what we call herd immunity) or 70 percent of the entire population," she said.
Belmonte said vaccine hesitancy has not been a problem in the city.
"Actually in fact, when we had this surge, Delta (variant), ang daming gustong magpabakuna (there are many who want to get vaccinated). So the problem is not so much that they are hesitant, but how to bring the the vaccines to them, because of the size of our city and also because there are many depressed communities." "Kapag nakakakita kami ng mga (when we see) clustered cases of unvaccinated people in a depressed community, our health workers go to these communities and vaccinate the people," she added.
According to the report from the local government released on Nov. 2, there are 1,841,834 individuals who aready recieved their first doses, while 1,767,406 were fully vaccinated.
A total of 8,695 minors (with and without commorbidities) have received their COVID-19 jabs.