The Department of Health-Cordillera will conduct a massive catch-up vaccination among various sectors that missed their mandatory vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic to help in achieving the target of 95 percent vaccinated Filipinos across the life stages.
DOH-Cordillera Director Amelita M. Pangilinan said a lot of catch-up activities should be done by the government to achieve the target, which is why all efforts of the agency are geared towards reaching out to the concerned sectors to close the gap between the target and the vaccinated individuals, especially children below one year old who should be vaccinated by the seven mandatory vaccines.
She said one of the major thrusts of the agency is to work with the private sector so physicians will submit to the health department the data of those who availed of the mandatory vaccines from them that will help in improving the region’s vaccination rate for fully immunized children from 15 to 20 percent.
The DOH-Cordillera official said the agency will have to do massive community mobilization to reach rural areas and vaccinate those who were not able to complete their vaccines due to the effects of the pandemic.
Based on the data obtained from the DOH-Cordillera, 52 percent of the children in the region are fully vaccinated pursuant to the agency’s standards, which is way below the target of 95 percent fully vaccinated children.
Pangilinan said the need for individuals to be vaccinated with the prescribed vaccines across the life stage for them to be spared from contracting severe infection caused by vaccine preventable diseases and to allow them to remain healthy.
She said the DOH will schedule a massive vaccination campaign in the country starting March up to May to help ensure that the government’s vaccination target will be achieved so that the agency can move on to the next stage which is to strengthen its vaccination across the life stages.
She said one of the previous challenges encountered by the health workers was the inadequate supply of vaccines earmarked for the vaccine preventable diseases, which resulted in the serious delays in the implementation of the government’s regular vaccination programs.
Pangilinan assured health workers there is more than enough supply of vaccines for the identified vaccine preventable illnesses across the life stage that is why there is a need to exert extra effort to reach out to those unvaccinated individuals and have them get their prescribed doses.
She called on parents of children who missed their prescribed vaccines to visit the nearest health facility to avail of vaccines because these doses are vital in preventing them from contracting severe infection of vaccine preventable diseases.
She said the vaccines being inoculated to individuals are safe because they were subjected to thorough research and passed through rigid tests. – PIO release
