The City Health Office (CHO) here achieved 102.65 percent coverage on children under 5-years-old vaccinated with the oral polio vaccine, exceeding the 85 percent target for the whole Mindanao.

Dr. Julinda Acosta, CHO Technical Division chief, said in a press briefing on Thursday that they increased the local target to 110 percent to make sure that no children will be left behind in the Mindanaowide “Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio” that started November 25 and will end on Saturday (December 7).

“Since it is Mindanaowide, we don’t only immunize children in Davao City alone. If there are children coming from other cities or municipalities, we also included them during the immunization period,” she said.

Acosta added that despite the high turn out of immunized children, CHO continues to conduct “sweeping and mapping” strategy to make sure that those unvaccinated children during their visit due to illness or away from their homes will be given the vaccine.

However, she said that about 28 children in this city refused to get immunized due to their religious beliefs.

“Even those who refused to have their children vaccinated, our personnel continue to persuade them to acquire the immunization,” she added.

Acosta said they initially targeted 186,864 eligible children but have vaccinated a total of 191,807 children as of December 4.

Out of the 191,807, data from CHO revealed that 790 children were vaccinated at the checkpoints while 138 are at the churches.

About 980 were vaccinated in malls while 1,969 received immunization in hospitals.

The biggest chunk of the number of vaccinated children were done at the health centers and during the house-to-house vaccination of CHO personnel.

Acosta said children who were not covered will be catered in next round of immunization, slated January 6, 2020.

The Department of Health (DOH) aims to vaccinate about three million children 5-years-old and below in the second round of the Mindanao-wide massive polio vaccination. (PNA)