March 29, 2024

Fully vaccinated residents of Benguet have a chance to go on a free tour of some tourist spots in the province once their names are picked during the monthlong 2021 Adivay Festival celebrations.

Dubbed “Vax to Vac”, the program is organized by the go-vernor’s office and the Provincial Tourism Office to encourage residents from the 13 towns to get vaccinated.

Executive Assistant Ryan Guinaran of the governor’s office said the program will also showcase current and new tourist spots and encourage local tourism.

Guinaran said the names of the residents will be randomly drawn from the list of various re-gistrations for vaccination.

He said the six chosen lucky tourists can bring one friend or family members, who are also fully vaccinated.

Guinaran said aside from the residents, one slot will be given to a frontliner as part of the tour.

The chosen individuals will be toured at the Um-a Farm of Elmer Macalingay, the owner of the Health 101 chain of homegrown restaurants. They also will tour the Asin hot springs in Tuba.  

“We plan to have succeeding ‘vacation’ draws to involve other tourist spots as we are preparing the reopening of the tourism sites,” Guinaran said.

He said the names of the chosen residents will be announced on Nov. 19 after the state of the province address of Gov. Melchor Diclas.

Diclas said the province received a large volume of vaccines from the national government with Pfizer as the latest vaccine to arrive.

The province aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its eligible population numbering to 338,000 individuals.

The PHO also conducts mobile vaccinations to help attain the 70 percent herd immunity in the province. It also opened the express lane vaccination booth in Km. 5 public market in La Trinidad to cater to 12 years old and above.

Residents can walk in without prior registration at the vaccination booth, which is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. until Nov. 30. – Ofelia C. Empian