Private vax sites boost vaccination program in Davao City

DAVAO CITY- People are making their way to fourth floor of Gaisano Mall, one of the popular malls here in Davao City. The people going up are not your regular mallgoers, the fourth floor is the access way to the mall’s The Peak area which in its heyday during pre-pandemic time hosted restaurants and coffee shops.  The pandemic forced many shops to close, the mall management decided to convert these vacant spaces into a vaccination site.

The vaccination site at The Peak is organized by the Stella Maris Academy of Davao Alumni Association (SMADAA) and was intended for vaccinees belonging to the A4 sector. The organizers had named the vaccination project as One Good Jab.

“It was a brainchild of a Marisian and a Gaisano Mall executive. They wanted vaccines to be available to Dabawenyos, that it would be very accessible and as much as possible it would not be overcrowded,” says Ana Caguiat, the vaccination executive manager and a member of the SMADAA Vaccination Program Executive Committee.

She said with the facilities of the Gaisano Mall,  the Stella Maris alumni association was tapped because of its network. The vaccinees belong to the A4 sector working in companies owned and operated by fellow Marisians.

Caguiat said the initial challenges was the false information about the vaccines spreading across the media which has given rise to vaccine hesitancy and vaccine fear.

“As much as possible we try to encourage everybody to get what vaccine we have onsite, the best vaccine is the one on-hand,” Caguiat said.

While the people are lining up at the site, volunteers and staff spend time informing them about the vaccines.

“Its not really for us, it is for your protection and the protection of your families,” she said.

Caguiat said they have also tweaked the system to make it more efficient and lessen the waiting time of the vaccinees.

The first one is registration and attendance, we have a masterlist because that is our way of making sure that our vaccinees are under the Marisian community and also making sure that there are no walk ins, as the walk ins could cause a super-spreader event,” Caguiat said.

She said the encoding process is done right after the vaccination stage.

“Before in some vaccination sites the encoding is done before the vaccination but it takes too much time one hour and two hours then in the end when the person reaches the assessment they cannot be vaccinated and they are exposed to these areas. What we want is an hour or an hour and a half these people are already vaccinated and can now go,” Caguiat said.

She said they have been vaccinating 750 people a day with some days reaching 800 vaccinees. The vaccination schedule starts from 8:00 am to 3:00 p.m.

Caguiat said the private sector led vaccination initiatives is a way of helping the government to vaccinate a greater number of people which could help lessen the impact of the pandemic.

“We believe that the government can only do so much so as part of the  private sector we also have that social responsibility to help our city and our country,” Caguiat said. (PIA/RG Alama)