DOH to conduct catch up vaccination in Cordillera

The Cordillera office of the Department of Health (DOH-CAR) will aggressively conduct a massive catch up vaccination among the 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-CAR regional director Dr. Amelita M. Pangilinan said that there is a lot of catch up that should be done by the government to be able to achieve the target that 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 claimed that one of the major thrusts of the agency is to closely work with the private sector so that 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.

Further, the DOH-CAR official pointed out that 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-CAR, around 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 stipulated 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.

According to her, the health department will be scheduling 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 explained that 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.

From now on, Pangilinan assured health workers that 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 the said vaccines because the said doses are vital in preventing them from contracting severe infection of vaccine preventable diseases that might compromise their health condition in the future.

The health official asserted that the vaccines being inoculated to individuals are safe because they were subjected to through research and passed through rigid tests before being rolled out to humans that is why people should avail of the said vaccines to keep them healthy. – Dexter A. See