Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday urged the government to seek the participation of schools and Department of Education (DepEd) field units to increase the vaccination coverage in the pediatric population.
Gatchalian, who is seeking re-election in the upcoming May 2022 elections said the COVID-19 vaccination is crucial among learners to ensure the safe resumption of face-to-face classes.
The senator said tapping schools is an efficient way to identify and monitor learners who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Around 14 million learners aged 5-11 are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the DepEd said. The government targets to inoculate 15.56 million children in this age group.
“Magandang pagkakataon ang fourth National Vaccination Day upang mabakunahan pa ang mas marami nating mga mag-aaral (The fourth National Vaccination Day is a good opportunity to vaccinate more students),” said Gatchalian, who currently heads the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture.
“Kung mas marami tayong mababakunahan na mga mag-aaral, mas makatitiyak tayo sa kanilang kaligtasan pagdating sa face-to-face classes (If we are able to vaccinate more students, we can be confident of their safety when they resume face-to-face classes),” added Gatchalian.
Gatchalian, who continues to push for the safe resumption of in-person learning, also said that placing the National Capital Region (NCR) under Alert Level 1 would pave the way for more schools participating in limited face-to-face classes.
“Ang ligtas na pagbabalik ng face-to-face classes ay mahalagang hakbang upang makabangon ang sektor ng edukasyon mula sa epekto ng pandemya, at patuloy natin itong tututukan (the resumption of face-to-face classes is an important step for the education sector to recover from the effects of the pandemic and we will continue to monitor this),” said Gatchalian.
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has approved placing the National Capital Region (NCR) under Alert Level 1 from March 1 to 15 primarily due to the high vaccination rate and a downward trend in both the Health Care Utilization Rate and COVID-19 Bed Utilization Rate.