THE Department of Health-Cordillera (DOH-CAR) on Monday intensified vaccination efforts in the provinces of Benguet and Ifugao in a bid to have the two provinces reach the 70 percent vaccination coverage for herd immunity.
The move is in a bid to lower the two provinces’ alert ratings from Level 2 to Level 1, which requires meeting the threshold, as the two provinces are the only provinces left in the region on Alert Level 2.
“Despite the efforts of the provincial and municipal governments of both provinces of Benguet and Ifugao, they still have the lowest number of vaccination coverage. This is also the reason why both provinces are still placed under Alert Level 2 by the National IATF,” said DOH-CAR Assistant Regional Director Dr. Amelita Pangilinan.
Under the vaccination effort, specific municipalities will have health personnel teams deployed to administer vaccines as these areas have the lowest vaccination coverage.
The targeted municipalities in Benguet include Bakun, Kapangan, Kibungan and Kabayan while the targeted municipalities in Ifugao are Aguinaldo, Asipulo, Banaue, Hingyon, Hungduan, Mayoyao and Tinoc.
Benguet has 240,696 fully vaccinated individuals or 60.99 percent of the 394,649 target population while Ifugao only has fully vaccinated 92,374 individuals or 53.66 percent of its 172,134 target population.
