LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The provincial government underscored that the current decline in the daily Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID) 2019 cases being recorded in the province over the past several weeks should not be a reason for people to relax and be complacent in their adherence to the minimum public health standards.
Gov. Melchor D. Diclas claimed that while the previous 3-digit daily COVID-19 cases being reported in the province dropped to 2 digits over the past 2 weeks, people should still sustain their compliance to the basic health and safety protocols because these are part of the better normal that everyone has to embrace.
Aside from complying with the minimum public health standards, the governor urged the people to have themselves vaccinated with any vaccine that is available in their respective areas.
He reported that there is a steady supply of vaccines being provided to the province by the health department so there is no reason for people not to be inoculated, provided that they comply with the vaccination guidelines being implemented by the different local governments for the generation of the appropriate data on the vaccinated population.
As a medical practitioner, he advised residents to avail of the ongoing roll out of the government’s mass vaccination program because of the assurance that they will be spared from contracting severe COVID and untimely demise as the vaccine is an added protection against the severe infection of the virus.
Diclas urged the 13 municipal governments to establish additional vaccination centers in their respective areas of jurisdiction to ensure that more people will be vaccinated daily in compliance with the marching orders from President Rodrigo Duterte for local officials to be aggressive in vaccinating their constituents for the eventual achievement of the projected population protection and eventual herd immunity.
According to him, there has been a significant increase in the number of people from the different municipalities who already want to be vaccinated due to job requirements once the local economy will gain ground with the ongoing efforts to gradually and safely revive the same but the problem in the past was the inadequate number of vaccines being given to the province.
However, he stipulated that with the combined representations done by the provincial government and Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap, the national anti-COVID-19 task force was convinced there is also a need to provide Benguet and other areas in the Cordillera with sufficient supply of vaccines. By HENT
