In a bid to ramp up inoculation for the A3 category or persons with comorbidities here, the Cebu City Vaccination Board has partnered with a private emergency response firm to conduct a house-to-house vaccination for bedridden and persons who could not walk.

Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, head of Cebu City Health Department, said on Tuesday bringing the vaccines to the doorstep of sick people is the answer to the many requests they received from the residents to inoculate their loved ones who are staying on their beds or those who could not travel to vaccination sites.

The city has partnered with the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF), a non-profit organization of first responders providing paramedical and medical emergency needs of Metro Cebu residents, and the Cebu Medical Society for the project.

The city health department reportedly held a dry-run of the home vaccination on Monday but did not say where and when will the program will be fully implemented as recipients need to register.

Ibones said bedridden individuals need to be registered through the pabakunata.com web portal and call ERUF’s hotline 161 or 233-8300 or 0918-921-0000.

“Actually, there are bedridden member or members of the family who really wanted to be vaccinated but they find it difficult to go to the vaccination site because of their condition,” Ibones told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview.

The project is meant for those suffering from different comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes, stroke, among others, who would stand to be exposed to other diseases if they step out of their houses to receive the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine.

For the house-to-house campaign, vaccinators will administer the single-dose Johnson & Johnson to the recipients, but Ibones clarified that other brands will also be used if needed.

“Individuals who are suffering illnesses and are staying at home stand to get the risk of getting infected with Covid-19 if they will be left of the vaccination rollout,” he said.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Department of Health (DOH)-Central Visayas chief pathologist, reported in her daily briefing that Cebu City has administered a total of 407,566 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

She said the city has given a total of 243,435 for the first dose and 164,131 for the second dose.

Meanwhile, Ibones urged city residents not to go out to jog and do leisure biking now that the number of Covid-19 cases in the city is high.

“If you want to exercise, you can do it at home now that we are on our effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” he said, clarifying that biking going to work is allowed.

Based on the DOH-Central Visayas bulletin released on Aug. 24, Cebu City reported 252 new cases, bringing the total active infections to 4,588. (PNA)