Half of population in high-risk areas must be inoculated

MANILA – The OCTA Research Group on Monday recommended that the government prioritize the vaccination of 50 percent of population in the National Capital Region (NCR) and six other areas to achieve containment.

In its May 24 monitoring report, half of the total population in the NCR, Tuguegarao City, Santiago City in Isabela, Baguio City, Cainta in Rizal province, Cebu City, and Imus in Cavite must be vaccinated as these areas are considered high-risk based on their average daily attack rate (ADAR).

NCR’s ADAR is 14.54; Tuguegarao, 21.63; Santiago, 17.56; Baguio, 15.33; Cainta, 11.44; Cebu, 9.35; and Imus, 9.21.

Overall, the seven areas would amount to 7.98 million individuals or 15.96 million doses of vaccines.

“In many countries that have vaccinated 50 percent of the population, there has been an immediate impact on containment of Covid-19. This is the immediate target in high-risk areas,” the group said.

As for areas considered as moderate-high risk, OCTA recommended vaccination of 30 to 40 percent of its population.

Meanwhile, about 20 percent to 30 percent of the population in moderate risk areas must be inoculated.

For the moderate-high risk local government units (LGUs), vaccinating 40 percent of the population will require 7.3 million doses while for the moderate risk LGUs, vaccinating 30 percent will need 3.08 million doses, OCTA said.

To ensure the country would recover from Covid-19 before the end of the year, OCTA suggested a rollout of 30 to 35 million vaccines allocated by risk level.

Since the country began its vaccination rollout on March 1, a total of 4,097,425 doses have been administered as of May 22.