The mapping of the population will help determine the areas to target for vaccination, according to the Department of Health-Cordillera.
DOH-CAR Director Rio Magpantay, during the launching of vaccination for the children aged five to 11 years old in Benguet, said it is important to disaggregate the data to determine the specifics of those unvaccinated.
Magpantay said this would help local government units and agencies to establish the profiles of unvaccinated individuals and create better strategies to convince them to avail of the vaccines available.
He said the DOH is currently looking at getting more funds to add more vaccinators, especially at the grassroots level.
Benguet Provincial Health Officer I Meliarazon Dulay said many punong barangays are already approaching the municipal health workers to give a list of those unvaccinated in their areas.
Dulay said with the help of the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams, they are building up the master list in their respective barangays. The Department of the Interior and Local Government earlier issued a memorandum circular for the different LGUs to have an inventory of vaccinated population.
She said their provincial vaccination team has augmented the municipalities with low vaccination accomplishment.
She said they are also coordinating with the various agencies and LGUs that conduct forums for information dissemination.
“We are looking for the different assemblies to set up the vaccination team there so we could catch those who wanted to get vaccinated where they are,” Dulay said.
She said the municipalities are also conducting regular vaccination, including those at the rural health units and district hospitals.
La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda, meanwhile, said the city government of Baguio has already forwarded to the municipality the names of 300,000 individuals who are residents of the municipality but were vaccinated in the city.
Around 221,027 of the identified 391,371 eligible population in Benguet have received their first dose while there are 199,847 fully vaccinated individuals representing 51.06 percent of the 80 percent eligible population. – Ofelia C. Empian
April 20, 2024
