MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur--The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) will continue to carry out its barangay-to-barangay vaccination drive called "suyod" to increase the number of persons protected against the coronavirus disease (Covid)-19.
IPHO chief Dr. Alinader Minalang said they have to capitalize on the strength of such initiative as it has greatly contributed to the increase in the vaccination coverage of the province.
"Before we did this, our vaccination rate was only 11%. And after doing this we were able to raise it to 21% and even 27% for the first dose," he said during the 1st quarter meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council.
Ten municipalities have already started implementing the "suyod" approach.
The IPHO chief admitted that doing the barangay-to-barangay and house-to-house vaccination has been challenging for their medical teams as some even received threats.
With this, Minalang called for unwavering support to the vaccination program emphasizing that even if security issues are resolved but the concern on Covid-19 is not addressed properly, it would still pose a big problem to the province.
He said only 21.8% or 144,007 of the targeted population in the province were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of March 7 and this is still far from the target of herd immunity of 70%.
He also requested the Philippine National Police to sustain the strict border control for checking vaccination cards.
Meanwhile, Minalang is hoping for a positive response for the fourth round of the Bayanihan Bakunahan on March 10-12, 2022. (APB/PIA Lanao del Sur)
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