LA TRINIDAD, Benguet– The municipal government recently started inoculating qualified residents for the second booster shots pursuant to the mandate of the health department and the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases to increase their protection from the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its emerging sub-variants that are already present in the country.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda said that immune-compromised residents will be the recipients of the second booster shots with health workers striving to reach those qualified to be inoculated.
He pointed out that the rollout of the second booster shots to immune-compromised residents will be over and above the ongoing vaccination of all sectors in the municipality which is a major thrust of the government to increase the protection of the people, especially with the emerging threat of the COVID-19 sub-variants that have already been discovered to be present in the country.
While admitting that the municipal government is encountering difficulties in the vaccination of residents, the chief executive stipulated that all possible remedies are now being done by health workers to ensure the municipal government can exceed the targeted 70 percent herd immunity for the population to have better protection from the deadly virus.
According to him, one of the strategies adopted by the municipal government to convince people to be vaccinated is aggressive information and education campaign in the town’s 16 barangays for residents to understand the benefit of being vaccinated and having booster shots for them to get the added protection from and transmitting the deadly virus to surges that might compromise the local health care system and unduly street the health workers.
Mayor Salda asserted that the people saw how difficult it was for the government to handle the situation during the previous surges in COVID-19 cases thus municipal officials and health workers are striving to ensure that a greater percentage of the town’s population will be vaccinated.
He urged unvaccinated residents to avail of the government’s inoculated program to help prevent unnecessary surges in cases which might derail the gains of the ongoing efforts to recover from the heavy impact inflicted by the pandemic.
Further, the mayor also called on residents to sustain their compliance to the minimum public health standards that will help in averting unnecessary infections that could trigger increase in cases and the transmission of the virus.
Salda emphasized that the cooperation of the residents to the ongoing vaccination program will be instrumental in addressing future problems that will be created by the possible increase in cases caused by failure to adhere to the prevailing minimum public health standards such as the mandatory wearing of face masks, observance of physical distancing and the practice of physical distancing and regular disinfection.
