ILIGAN CITY (PIA)–As the city’s coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 curve is not yet flattened and the herd immunity is still not achieved, the City Health Office (CHO) here called on the local government’s partners to help in ramping up the national vaccination program.
“Kinahanglan nga bakunado gyud nato ang 70% sa atong total population [We need to have 70% of the total population vaccinated]. Let us campaign for our vaccination so that we can return to our normal economic activities,” said Acting City Health Officer Dr. Belinda Lim.
She said the Department of Health (DOH) alongside the CHO targets to hit 70% herd immunity by Christmas Day, however, only 2% progress is logged every week.
Lim also requested the Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) to provide them an updated list of senior citizens in the city with their cellphone numbers so that they may be contacted and convinced to get inoculated as the CHO noted that there is a small percentage of submitting senior citizens and many remain unvaccinated.
She likewise extended the list of concerns on the vaccination program to the media sector to tap them in helping people understand the essence of COVID-19 vaccines and why they should get vaccinated.
Lim has earlier bared that numerous Iliganon still believes in false information about the vaccines which came out as one of the factors to the slow progress in the vaccination program.
“Ato siguro ipasabot sa katawhan nga ang COVID, dili na gyud na mawala sa kalibutan. Pareho na siya sa chicken pox, tipdas ug uban pang kagaw sa kalibutan nga dili nana muhawa sa ato. It will be with us, with humanity forever. Dili nana siya mawala, ang ato lang is we develop immunity against it,” she said.
[Let us maybe make the public understand that the COVID will not go away from this world anymore. It is like the chickenpox, measles, and other viruses in this world which will never go away from us. It will be with us, with humanity forever. It will not go away, it is just that we develop immunity against it.]
The health officer stressed that vaccines do not guarantee that people will not be infected anymore as anyone can still be infected and reinfected but such will protect the population from severity to the point of death due to the virus.
Currently, the city continues its vaccination drive which is conducted from Tuesday until Friday every week in Robinsons Place Iligan, La Salle Academy, and Gaisano Mall as Mondays are reserved for other health programs.
The local government has also launched the other week Mobile Vaccination Unit (MoVaU) wherein the CHO goes to the community to inoculate residents, particularly those belonging to the A5 cluster. (CRG/PIA-Lanao del Norte)
