BONTOC, Mountain Province – Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. hailed the people of the province for showing their utmost cooperation to the ongoing roll out of the government’s mass vaccination that paved the way for a high vaccine utilization rate over the past several weeks.
Lacwasan stated that the vaccines that are being brought by the assigned health workers to the different barangays for the vaccination of the priority sectors are now being fully utilized that is why the province has a high utilization rate of vaccines ranging from 95 to 97 percent.
The governor disclosed that the efforts of concerned government agencies, the provincial and municipal government, the health workers and volunteers in informing and educating the people on the importance of being vaccinated is now paying off that is why he is hoping that the momentum will be sustained until such time that majority of the people of the province will be vaccinated to help in achieving herd immunity.
According to him, the provincial government will remain steadfast in ensuring that there will be no members of the priority sectors that will be left out in the ongoing vaccination so that they will be spared from contracting severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and for them to be able to help in achieving the desired herd immunity probably by the end of the year or by early next year depending on the availability of the vaccines that will be distributed in the different parts of the country.
While it is true that provincial officials and health workers had a difficult time cascading the appropriate information to the people on the importance of being vaccinated, Lacwasan stipulated that people started to understand the importance of being inoculated with the available vaccines and that they voluntarily made themselves available during the scheduled vaccination in their respective barangays.
He expressed hope that because of the province’s high vaccine utilization rate, the health department will increase the supply of vaccines that will be provided to the province once there will be available vaccine allocations so that the province will be able to vaccinate the members of the priority sectors and the general population if the supply will be sufficient.
The local chief executive asserted that the province needs to start efforts to gradually and safely revive the local economy and one of the best measures to achieve the same is to ensure that a greater portion of the population will be vaccinated so that people will be able to start somewhere in regaining their jobs and economic activities.
He argued that vaccinated residents should not be complacent after being administered with the two doses of their vaccines as they still need to comply with the prescribed minimum public health standards to ensure utmost protection until such time that there will be advisories from the concerned health authorities on the next steps that will be undertaken once herd immunity will be achieved.
Lacwasan urged the members of the priority sectors who still have doubts on being vaccinated to already start availing of the vaccines that will serve as their added protection from contracting the severe COVID-19 that might compromise their health condition in the future. By HENT
