LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Vaccination in Benguet is being hampered by the surge in Covid-19 cases and other events of the local government units.
Provincial Health Officer 1 Meliarazon Dulay said while the anti-Covid-19 vaccination is continuing, the increasing Covid-19 cases in the different municipalities since the start of the year as well as the ongoing processing of documents at the LGUs are affecting the conduct of inoculation of residents.
Dulay said at the start of the year, LGUs are busy in the processing and issuance of business permits, licenses and other requirements of their constituents. The LGUs have set up their “Business One-Stop-Shop” (BOSS) and most of the employees including those from the Municipal Health Office and volunteers from the Municipal Disaster and Risk Reduction Office, municipal police stations, fire stations and other offices who are involved in this are partners in the vaccination activities.
Dulay added the rising cases and the response and management in the different municipalities also affect vaccination activities of the LGUs. Some of the health workers are also infected by the virus.
In the latest PHO report, the province is already at critical epidemic risk level after logging more than 1,500 cases the since the start of the year.
Dulay hopes that the LGUs would complete their business registration tasks sooner so that vaccination activities will be strengthened especially with the increased vaccination targets this time using the new population released by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Meanwhile, Provincial Department of Health officer Mercy Calpito expressed gratitude to the continued efforts of the different LGUs in vaccinating the eligible and willing despite having busy schedules.
“At this time of the year, we know you are all busy with your one-stop-shops as well as with the challenge of the surge but we hope that you will still be able to have more time for the vaccination, although we have been seeing that you really are doing efforts and we appreciate that,” Calpito said. – Redjie M. Cawis
April 27, 2024
