CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – The Department of Health (DOH)-Region 4 (Calabarzon or the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon area) seeks to administer over three million Covid-19 booster shots in the first 100 days of the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

A campaign to achieve this goal called “Sa Booster, Pinaslakas!” was launched in Imus City, Cavite last Tuesday, July 26.

“Importante po ito para sa ating bayan, para sa edukasyon, para sa ekonomiya, para sa bawat pamilya (This is important to our country, education, economy, and family). Seventy-eight percent ng ating senior citizen ang boosted na at malaki pa po ang ating kinakailangang bakunahan para maabot ng 90 percent target (Seventy-eight percent of our senior citizens already have booster shots and we have a long way to go before we achieve our 90 percent target),” Health Undersecretary for Policy and Infrastructure Development Team (HPIDT) Lilibeth C. David said.

DOH-Calabarzon director Ariel I. Valencia said that “the vaccination here in the region will target the people inside the factories, markets, and schools. This is where they are now, these three settings are our specific targets for this new campaign. This is very timely, now that face-to-face classes will be allowed and the majority of the factories are fully operational. Kapag nagawa natin ito, walang duda we will achieve our set targets (If we do this, there is no doubt we will achieve our targets).”

“The campaign also seeks to impart the importance of unified strength and maintaining the country’s ‘Wall of Immunity’ by achieving the target of 90 percent primary series coverage among Priority Group A2: Senior citizens and 50 percent eligible population receiving at least one booster in settings where the people are and where they want to be – places of work, transport terminals, community centers, commercial centers, places of worship, and learning,” Valencia added.

The vision of the Pinaslakas campaign is that by October 8, the majority of the boosted population may enjoy and feel more protected against severe effects and mortality from Covid-19.

DOH-Calabarzon will vaccinate a total of 3,205,875 Covid-19 booster shots, 723, 453 from Cavite, 654, 994 from Rizal, 616, 720 from Batangas, 590, 524 from Laguna, 529, 700 from Quezon, and 90,484 from Lucena City.

With the total number of targets due for booster, DOH-Calabarzon aims to inoculate 53, 431 per day as of July 22.

DOH-Calabarzon reported 165 new Covid-19 cases, 68 from Rizal, 61 from Batangas, 17 from Laguna, 16 from Cavite, and three from Quezon. As of July 25, there were 508, 772 Covid-19 cases in the region.

As of July 25, there are 10, 473, 312 fully vaccinated individuals in the region, with 11, 023, 290 getting their initial dose, 2,693,629 their first booster shot, and 203,089 their second dose.