Students attend limited face-to-face classes at the Cebu City Central School. CDN Digital photo | Delta Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines – As schools and students prepare for the resumption of traditional style of teaching, health officials here urged parents to get their children vaccinated as protection from COVID-19.
The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) made this statement when latest COVID-19 vaccination statistics showed that the region needs to catch up in its vaccination campaign for the pediatric group.
“We’re calling everyone to bring their children to our vaccination sites. Because based on the pronouncements of DepEd (Department of Education), we may be shifting to full face-to-face classes. Although dili mandatory ang vaccination but we always emphasize that vaccination provides an added layer of protection,” said Dr. Van Philip Baton, Program Manager of DOH-7’s Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases.
DOH-7 is targeting to vaccinate roughly 2 million minors, aged five to 17 years old, in Central Visayas.
Based on the figures they recently released, there are only around 800,000 children, aged five to 17 years old, that have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Of this number, 622,028 are those who belong to the age group 12 to 17 years old.
Baton said they are aiming to inoculate 931,001 children in this age group.
“This translates to a COVID vaccination coverage rate of 66.3, which is a good number, closer to our 70 percent target,” said Baton.
However, the same thing cannot be said for children belonging to the age group five to 11 years old, Baton added.
As of June 28, DOH-7 recorded that only 177,346 children aged between five to 11 years old have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The department is targeting to vaccinate around 1.1 million kids in this particular age bracket.
“It’s a totally different picture for our five to 11 (years old compared to our 12 to 17 years old). It has a bigger denomination at 1.1 million. But we only fully vaccinated so far 177, 346, or around 15.6 percent,” explained Baton.
There are over 4,000 public and private schools in Central Visayas.
Based on earlier reports, the regional office of DepEd announced that around 75 percent of these schools have been given the go-signal to go back to face-to-face classes.
In-person classes were suspended for roughly two years following threats of the COVID-19 pandemic. /rcg
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