Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino in Mactan opens its function rooms to serve as a vaccination center in Lapu-Lapu City. At the opening Friday, July 23, 2021, (from left) the hotel’s general manager Benhur Caballes, Lapu-Lapu City Tourism Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission chief Cindi King-Chan, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian whose family owns the hotel, and Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan observe a senior citizen being vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies.

METRO Cebu received an allocation of 76,440 doses from the 108,800 additional doses of Sinovac vaccine that were delivered in Central Visayas on Thursday, July 22, 2021.

Mary Jean Loreche, Visayas Covid-19 Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) spokesperson, said of the 76,440 doses given to Metro Cebu, 22,000 is initially allocated for Cebu City; 10,400 for Mandaue City; 13,600 for Lapu Lapu City; 8,600 for Talisay City; 4,500 for the City of Naga; 4,600 for Minglanilla; 4,800 for Consolacion, and 7,940 for the Project Balik Buhay (PBB) vaccination initiative.

She said the vaccines will be used as second dose for individuals scheduled to get it this week.

Any excess of the vaccine supply can be given to others as first dose, Loreche said.

The rest of the Sinovac vaccines that arrived in the region or 32,360 doses will be divided among the provinces of Bohol, Siquijor, and Negros Oriental.

As of Thursday, 93,360 of the 131,989 eligible frontline health workers (priority group A1) in the region who registered themselves for vaccination had been inoculated while 29,629 others are still awaiting their schedule for their second dose.

For senior citizens (priority group A2), 133,599 of the registered 538,216 (24.8 percent) in Central Visayas had received their first dose. Of the number, 62,968 had been fully vaccinated.

The Department of Health (DOH) also reported the near completion of the vaccination for registered individuals with comorbidities or A3.

About 93.2 percent or 298,129 of the 319,927 registered A3 population had been vaccinated with their first dose while 99,470 received the two doses required.

A total of 4,200 economic frontliners (priority group A4) in Central Visayas also received their first dose.

In Cebu, a total of 596,218 doses were administered in all public and private vaccination centers in the entire island broken down as follows: 222,978 doses (Cebu City), 132,182 doses (Mandaue City), 57,750 doses (Lapu Lapu City), and 183,308 doses (Cebu Province).

Vaccination hotel

Meanwhile, the Lapu-Lapu City Government launched its first ever hotel vaccination site at the Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino in Mactan, which is also the fifth vaccination center of the City.

Mayor Junard Chan said the hotel offered free use of the area and committed to shoulder the payment and meals of the medical team assigned at the vaccination site.

Chan said the hotel also offered light refreshments for all the vaccinees.

“All these at zero cost to the local government unit. Your support to our vaccination program will help us win this fight against Covid-19,” Chan said.

The ribbon cutting ceremony of the new vaccination which is in partnership with the DOH and the Lapu-Lapu City Government was held on Friday, July 23.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian whose family owns Waterfront Hotel attended the event.

“We want to be part of the solution. Definitely, the problems of the country is much greater than all of us and we need all hands on deck. It means whatever we can contribute, whether it’s space or food, we will do so in order for all of us to go back to normal,” Gatchalian said.

The new site catered exclusively to senior citizens and used the vaccine brand, Johnson & Johnson by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies when it opened on Friday.