ILOILO CITY – The Department of Health-6 vowed to improve the immunization rate among children in Western Visayas after they were called out by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in his State-of-the-Nation Address on July 22.
“The DOH-6 oversees the enactment of various actions to expand the package of quality immunization services and increase its coverage,” said the DOH-6 in a statement.

TODDLERS and children are immunized by the DOH in Santa Barbara town, Iloilo province. (DOH-6)
The DOH-6 did not directly cite reasons why they were mentioned by the President in his annual address.
Marcos said that the DOH-6 has not accomplished half of the target number of children for immunization.
But the DOH-6 said it is “addressing the increasing number of unimmunized and under-vaccinated children” in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental provinces as well as the highly urbanized cities of Iloilo and Bacolod.
The DOH-6 said only 49,191 out of 160,897 children or 30.5 percent were fully immunized as of June 2024.
The agency did not reach its target of 95 percent in 2023 as only 61.36 percent were fully immunized.