Iloilo province starts 3-day vax drive ahead of nat’l event

The provincial government of Iloilo launched on Friday a three-day “Bakunahan Bayanihan” with the aim to reach out to all eligible vaccinees in 42 towns.

The province hired 1,092 vaccinators to augment the current batch of health care workers.

Some capitol staff or those working under the Government Internship Program are deployed to municipalities to serve as encoders.

Lawyer Dennis Ventilacion, Iloilo provincial administrator, said the target set by the Department of Health (DOH) is “serious and difficult” but it can be handled.

As of Thursday, the Iloilo Provincial Health Office report showed 502,341 of the 1,448,757 target eligible population are already fully vaccinated.

Dr. Adriano Subaan, regional director of the DOH Western Visayas Center for Health Development, enjoined the support of the public for the mass vaccination during the event launch.

Citing statistics, he said that the health care utilization of the province is down to 32 percent while the growth in Covid-19 cases slowed down to negative 32 percent.

Three weeks ago, the province recorded 751 cases that dropped to 291 a week after.

“Those numbers speak a lot. It speaks a lot about the extraordinary efforts coming from our front-liners and from our decision makers,” he said.

Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. said they launched the event ahead of the national three-day national event on November 29 to December 1 to show how serious they are in stopping the virus.

“We want a vaccination drive that we will start today and we will do so for three days. We will continue because the vaccination drive is every day,” he said in his speech.

The province will also target big establishments and partner with hospitals to inoculate eligible population in private schools as the vaccination drive in state universities and colleges has been completed.

The short program at the capitol was followed by a caravan around the province’s five congressional districts to raise awareness about the three-day national vaccination drive.

Source: Philippines News Agency