The Quezon City government has already administered the first doses of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine to 152,099 residents as of Friday.

QC has 27 active vaccination sites that average between 400 and 600 individuals daily.

These include village-assisted sites, homeowners association usually done in clubhouses, Ateneo, University of the Philippines, and malls.

For the period May 9 to 13, an average of 6,048 individuals got inoculated daily. The total reached 30,241. At present, 53,963 individuals have already been fully vaccinated.

The QC government reiterated through its Facebook page on Friday that experiencing side effects after receiving the Covid-19 jab is normal.

“Ang pagpapabakuna ang pinaka-epektibong panlaban sa Covid-19 at ang side effects ay kadalasang nagpapatunay na ang ating katawan ay tumutugon sa isang bakuna (Getting the vaccine is the most effective shield against Covid-19, and having side effects means that our body is responding to the vaccine),” the post read.

Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement the city continues to intensify testing and contact tracing efforts.

“While we are treating and isolating confirmed cases in order to mitigate the spread, we also expanded our testing which determines not just symptomatic patients but also asymptomatic ones,” Belmonte said.

She added that identifying and isolating infected persons is better than not being able to trace them at all.

The City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) has so far established 22 community-based testing sites that operate from Mondays to Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

CESU recently identified 4,134 individuals who were possibly exposed to positive cases in the city through the KyusiPass system that uses QR (quick response) codes.

The city has 4,597 active cases as of Friday. (PNA)