More children have been immunized against a disabling and life-threatening disease after the Philippine Red Cross said it achieved more than its target in the last round of the Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio in Mindanao.

Chairman and CEO Sen. Richard Gordon said the PRC achieved 128 percent accomplishment of its target - immunizing 102,567 children against polio compared to its original target of 80,000 children for the last round of the program which ended last Aug. 2.

Gordon  commended the staff and volunteers of PRC chapters in Mindanao who went “beyond the call of their duty” to achieve this.

 “With the threat of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases emerging while we are engaged in the World War C (World War COVID) because vaccinations have been temporarily placed on hold during the quarantine period, these children have been placed in danger,” he said. “Thank you for ensuring that more children, more than our target number, will now have immunity against polio,” he added.

With the support of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the PRC -- through its 17 chapters -- dispatched a total of 613 volunteers and 43 staff to go to 250 communities in 36 cities and municipalities in Mindanao. The last round of polio vaccination program ran from July 20 to Aug. 2.

“I also thank the IFRC and the ICRC for their continued support to the Philippine Red Cross,” Gordon said. “They are always there whenever we have to deal with all kinds of disasters that hit us,” he added.

The Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio is a vaccination program launched by the Department of Health (DoH) in October last year in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mindanao. The program was conducted in four phase, with the fourth or last phase held recently.