Saturdays at the People’s Park in August: visit and get vaxxed

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews  / 13 August) — Vaccination against COVID-19 will be available all Saturdays of August at the People’s Park here in response to demands from parents and workers to make the service available on weekends.

Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson for the Davao City Task Force on coronavirus disease (COVID-19), told Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) on Friday that the group hopes to encourage more people to get their primary and booster doses as the city has observed an uptick in the number of new infections.

She said the Saturday vaccination will be available on August 13, 20, and 27 at the park – the city’s biggest vaccination hub – as the city hopes to increase the number of vaccinees before the start of face-to-face classes on August 22.

^{Hundreds flock to a vaccination hub at People’s Park in Davao City on 5 January 2022 for booster shots as health officials are alarmed with the increase in COVID-19 cases just after the holidays and with the threat posed by the Omicron variant. MindaNews Photo}

“We are pushing forward to having vaccination every Saturday at the People’s Park,” she said.

Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) requested that vaccination services be made available on Saturdays as parents and workers said they could only spare their weekends for the vaccination, she said.

Last June 30, the city government closed all its vaccination hubs, transferring the services to the 18 health district offices and relying on scheduled sectoral and mobile vaccinations in barangays.

Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, head of the city’s vaccination cluster, said the Saturday vaccination will cater to the eligible population, such as the pediatric, 12-17 years old, and 18 and above.

Villafuerte urged parents to protect their children from COVID-19 by getting their children vaccinated. 

As of August 8, the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao reported a total of 1,326,015 individuals vaccinated or 99.99% of the 1,327,323 target, comprising at least 70 percent of the city’s total population.

Schlosser said Mayor Sebastian Duterte wants the city’s entire eligible population to get the jab. 

She said the city recorded 108 new cases on Friday, putting the total active cases approximately around 700.

She said the city has yet to release consolidated data for August 7 to 13. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)