The Bacolod City government expressed confidence that it will meet its goal to inoculate 100 percent of the city’s target population by December 2021 to reach herd immunity.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday cited the assessment of the Department of Health in Western Visayas echoed by Regional Director Adriano Suba-an, who congratulated the mayor last Thursday because Bacolod has already posted a 50 percent vaccination rate.

“We are on our way to herd immunity,” said Leonardia, who joined frontliners from the Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) and COVID-19 Vaccination Council (CoVAC), during the VAC-TO-SCHOOL campaign to administer jabs to students, faculty, non-teaching personnel and parents of La Consolacion College community.

Updated real time data released by the EOC-TF, through City Health Office officer-in-charge Dr. Edwin Miraflor, Jr., showed that Bacolod’s vaccination numbers already breached a little over the 50 percent mark.

Miraflor said that EOC and CoVAC’s target population for vaccination is 424,992 as of November 9.

A total of 269,741 Bacolodnons already received jabs with 235,392 getting at least one dose on top of the 34,349 receiving the single-shot J & J vaccine, Miraflor said.

Based on the target population, the 50 percent is at 212,496, data showed./WDJ