The provincial government will lobby for seven more local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental to be deescalated to Alert Level 1 by April 16 for having also met at least 70 percent or more of their COVID-19 vaccination targets, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said on Monday, April 4.
On Friday, the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) deescalated the alert levels of La Carlota City, Pulupandan, San Enrique, EB Magalona and Sagay City from two to one until April 15.
Diaz said before the national IATF releases its new list for April 16 to 30, the provincial government will lobby for the inclusion of Cadiz City, Talisay City, Murcia, Pontevedra, Victorias City, Silay City and Candoni under Alert Level 1 for having met the required parameters.
They are happy their proposal that alert levels be deescalated based on the performance of individual LGUs, instead of on a provincewide basis, has been adopted by the IATF, he said.
The Department of Health (DOH) is overseeing all the vaccines arriving in Negros Occidental and their utilization so all of them are used in time to ensure that they are not wasted, he said.
Diaz said that with the DOH classifying alert levels depending on the performances of LGUs, he hopes it will inspire the others to work harder to attain their vaccination targets, he said.
There have been 1,268,712 residents who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Negros Occidental, and 107,531 are up for second dose vaccination, Diaz said, or 60.46 percent of its target population.
Diaz said 125,000 doses of Pfizer pediatric vaccines arrived in Negros Occidental on Monday. “We hope to vaccinate more children to prepare them for the opening of face-to-face classes,” Diaz said.
The provincial government is also continuing to vaccinate the rest of the population and providing booster shots, he said.
“The good news is the COVID-19 cases in the province are down and we are in a good place now”, Diaz said.
Negros Occidental had 37 active COVID-19 cases on Monday, the Provincial Incident Management Team reported.
Diaz said he hopes the campaign rallies do not bring out another COVID-19 surge.*