A total of 114,570 out of 125,082 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) were inoculated against the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) as of Nov. 21.
The figure represents 91 percent vaccinated PDLs, according to BJMP chief Director Allan Iral.
"we are continuously exerting efforts to ensure that all PDL under our care will be vaccinated. Since the start of the vaccine roll-out, we made sure that our PDL will remain as one of the government's top priorities considering the level of risk of infection being in a closed space,’’ said Iral.
Of the 114,570 who got the COVID-19 jabs, Iral noted that a total of 76,084 PDLs had already completed their second doses.
Iral cited the National COVID-19 Vaccine Operations Center for their support and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for continuously encouraging the local government executives to include their constituencies behind bars in the allocation of their vaccines.
“Dahil sa pagtutulungan ng mga ahensiya at opisina ng ating pamahalaan upang maprotektahan ang ating mga PDL mula sa COVID-19, konti na lamang po (PDLs not vaccinated) at malapit na nating maabot ang 100 percent vaccination rate sa ating mga kulungan na under ng BJMP (Because of the teamwork of the agencies and government offices to protect our PDL against COVID-19, only a handful were unvaccinated and we are nearing the 100 percent vaccination rate in our jail facilities under the BJMP),’’ Iral stressed.
“We are hoping, through the support of our partners and the concerned government agencies, we could hit 100 percent vaccination rate in all district, city, and municipal jails across the country before the year ends,’’ he noted.
The BJMP chief also commended the BJMP Region V office for posting a 100 percent vaccination rate with only 3.71 percent of their PDLs soon to get their second vaccine doses.
The top five best-performing BJMP regional officers in terms of PDL vaccinated rates are Region I (99.84 percent), Region III (99.83 percent), IX (98.68 percent) and II (98.66 percent).
Aside from COVID-19 vaccines, 85,816 PDL were also given flu vaccine shots while 3,901 received pneumococcal vaccine injections. (Chito A. Chavez)