Some 439,371 individuals in the Ilocos Region have been inoculated against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the three-day “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” national vaccination days.
In a report of the Department of Health Center for Health Development Ilocos Region (DOH-CHD-1) on Thursday, Pangasinan, including its chartered city of Dagupan, recorded the highest number of vaccinated individuals with 252,252 as of December 1.
It was followed by Ilocos Sur with 64,467, La Union with 63,535, and Ilocos Norte with 59,117.
In a phone interview, Pangasinan Provincial Health Office (PHO) chief Dr. Anna Ma. Teresa de Guzman thanked the residents who got their jab, as well as the medical healthcare workers.
“On behalf of Governor Amado Espino III, we thank you all for your cooperation and for the hard work of our medical healthcare workers. Ever since the pandemic started, you were there,” she said.
De Guzman added they will resume administering booster shots to the medical frontline workers, while the local government units (LGUs) may continue with their mass vaccination program.
In a statement, DOH-CHD-1 said the LGUs may extend the national vaccination days until Friday as the central office grants the voluntary extension of the program.
“To sustain the momentum of the national vaccination days and to take advantage of the interest of the constituents towards vaccination, the LGUs are allowed to extend the operations of the Bayanihan, Bakunahan National Covid-19 vaccination days,” advisory no. 111 of the National Covid-19 Vaccination Operations Center read.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Investment Management Consultants Inc.-University of Pangasinan (PHINMA-UPang) and Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) faculties and staff participated in the national vaccination days from November 29 to December 1.
PHINMA-UPang College of Nursing instructor Leonardo Sanchez said their vaccination teams were from the school’s Nursing Department College of Allied Health Services, particularly faculty members and student volunteers (level 4 nursing students).
“We were able to coordinate with (the) Commission on Higher Education (CHED), then with the City Health Office. We really want to push for the vaccination of all our students although we have opened our school not only to UPang students but also to residents of nearby communities in Dagupan as we really want to have herd immunity (population protection),” she said in an interview Wednesday.
Sanchez added another vaccination day is set on December 15 in partnership with the city government of Dagupan.
LNU College of Nursing faculty member and one of the school’s Covid-19 vaccination drive focal person, Hilda Cruz, said their vaccinators were mostly volunteer jabbers who are faculty members at the Colleges of Nursing and Medical Technology.
Cruz said they also include nurses who graduated from the school, clerks and interns at the College of Medicine, and Level 5 nursing and med-tech students.
The majority of the vaccine recipients were college students and those under the pediatric group or those aged 12 to 17.
The Association of Private Schools, both elementary and secondary, also partnered with the university.
Source: Philippines News Agency
