DAVAO CITY—Contact-tracing for Covid-19 infection would shift to higher gear, this time to do family profiling to aid the city health personnel on its mobile vaccination and targetting of communities to ensure higher vaccination coverage.
Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesman of the City Covid-19 Task Force, said contact tracers underwent training on family profiling to assist the vaccination cluster and its partners, the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) and United Children’s Fund (Unicef), in the house-to-house mobile vaccination that would be conducted in the barangays.
“Today, we have already trained contact tracers to do the family profiling. Once the family profiling is completed, we will consolidate the data so we will know who among the families have not yet received Covid-19 vaccine as the mobile vaccination team will go after them,” she said.
She said family profiling was developed for the house-to-house mobile vaccination more effectively to deliver better vaccination results for boosters, the first dose, and second doses among the 12 years old and above population group.
Dr. Schlosser said the city has a target population and actual population “but sometimes, vaccination in the target population is either too fast or too slow.”
“We need to have an actual population to know the actual number of those vaccinated so we will do a family profiling. Apart from that, we’re going to involve the barangays, especially the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams functionaries. They’ll be helping the district health offices to consolidate which barangays in their districts have low vaccination rollout or have individuals who have not yet been vaccinated).”
A family profiling will be first conducted in Bunawan in the northeast and Toril in the southwest.
She said they anticipated rejection and refusal from some barangay residents but “a refusal does not mean they should stop their efforts to convince Dabawenyos to get themselves vaccinated or boostered.”
“That’s why it’s mobile vaccination because we are bringing the vaccination, as well as bringing the education to them. We will keep going back to them until we convince them of the importance and benefits of the vaccine,” she added.
She said fixed vaccination hubs in strategic areas in the city are still open for walk-ins from Mondays to Fridays while the ones in Crocodile Park and People’s Park are open until Saturdays for walk-ins and drive-thru. Its hub at Abreeza Ayala Malls is open until Sunday, April 3, for first, second, missed, and booster doses.