Dr. Meliarazon Dulay, Provincial Health Officer I, said the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) will ensure that that private and government agency stakeholders collaborate to attain a 90% coverage of senior citizens inoculated with primary series and a 50% coverage of the general population receiving at least a first booster shot, on or before October 8, 2022.

 

“Once we become successful in all these endeavors, we will come to that time when we remove mask mandates, remove alert level system, and fully reopen school and travels,” Dr. Dulay stated.

 

Albeit the province has vaccinated 73% of its population against the CoVID-19 virus, Benguet is still under Alert Level 2 as the 70% criteria for the vaccination rate of senior citizens has not yet been met having only inoculated 60.54%.

 

Meanwhile, three towns in the province are now under Alert Level 1 having met the 70% criteria for the general and senior citizen population, namely, Buguias, Sablan, and Tublay.

 

Dr. Mercedes Calpitol, DMO V – PDOHO, encouraged the public to ‘fully’ advocate the vaccination program in order to hit the target numbers and finally meet herd immunity.

 

Vaccination sites in the different towns in the province through their Rural Health Units (RHUs) have been active catering to the general population. House-to-house vaccination is also being conducted for those who cannot go to the designated vaccination sites.