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MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur (PIA)--Lanao del Sur has hit a milestone in the fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) as the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) reported zero active cases in the province for almost three weeks already.
IPHO Chief Dr. Alinader Minalang attributed this to the strengthened response and surveillance system as well as the continuing collective efforts in managing the pandemic in the province.
"Despite na nag-open tayo sa ating mga [opening our] borders, we were able to maintain that status of Covid-19 precisely because of our more strengthened response and surveillance system," he said.
He, however, reiterated that people should not be complacent and must always keep their guards up as the province is still under Alert Level 2.
"The reason why we are on Alert Level 2 is because of our low vaccination rate despite our grueling efforts to make the vaccines available and accessible to the public," he further said.
Only 267,553 individuals or 40% of the eligible population were fully vaccinated as of press time.
Minalang said vaccine hesitancy remains the biggest barrier to increasing vaccination coverage in the province.
To address this, the IPHO has been constantly reaching out to the public to help in the vaccination campaign.
The IPHO chief said they are also utilizing the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach partnering with local government units, different line agencies, private institutions, non-government organizations, CSOs, the religious sector, and media to ramp up the campaign.
"We have to keep our system working in order for us to go with the trend of improving and increasing our vaccination rate," he added. (APB/PIA-10 Lanao del Sur)
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