A manual for community vaccination operations plan in local government units (LGUs) were distributed on Wednesday to the mayors in Cebu province, the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) said.

OPAV Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino said Melquiades Feliciano wrote the manual in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the national government and under the guidance of Department of Health (DOH)-Central Visayas regional director Jaime Bernadas.

Feliciano is the deputy chief implementer for Visayas of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Dino said the manual was conceptualized to support the rollout of the Philippine National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for Covid-19 Vaccines, and the Regional and Local Covid-19 Vaccination Operations Centers that are directed to develop deployment and vaccination plans based on the guidelines issued by the DOH.

“Before today, we have already seen the manual to be effective as we have conducted a pilot test in Mandaue City, the first to implement community vaccination in the Visayas serving as a benchmark for all other localities,” Dino said in his speech during the turnover ceremony at the Oakridge Pavilion in Mandaue City.

The manual, he said, will be cascaded to the LGUs in the Visayas for coordinated inoculation of the populace.

He said the manual, outlining systematic and organized ways to ensure efficient, safe and streamlined vaccination processes in the Visayas, has been piloted in Mandaue City where the first community vaccination program was also tested.

The Visayas has so far inoculated over 120,000 people, with many of them having received their second dose.

Dino commended the Project Balik Buhay chaired by businessman Edmun Liu for helping the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) in the successful vaccination rollout in the Visayas regions.

“This VVOC Manual is in line with the guidance of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to apply a whole-of-nation approach to the National Vaccination Plan. This is also in support of the Chair of the Senate Committee on Health Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go’s call for an efficient, equitable and effective rollout of vaccines,” he said.

Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia thanked Dino for spearheading the effort to synchronize the mass vaccination to the Cebuanos and the rest of Visayans.

In his presentation to 40 Cebu mayors, Feliciano said the manual outlines the organizational structure of the vaccination committee which is headed by the mayor as well as the required configuration in setting up the venue for inoculation in each locality.

“We will do our best to have this manual rolled out in the entire Visayas as we carry on with our Covid-19 vaccination program. We urge the public to do their part by having themselves vaccinated. But of course, we need to follow the approved prioritization framework with an aim of protecting our frontline defense towards a faster socio-economic recovery,” Dino said. (PNA)