We should really give Negros Occidental’s vaccination drive a final push if we want to meet the February deadline for reaching herd immunity, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Wednesday, February 2.
He said with about 60 percent of the target population fully vaccinated, a lot of effort will be needed to meet the target.
The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said Negros Occidental has fully vaccinated 59.44 percent of its target population, and partially vaccinated 9.63 percent.
It still has to vaccinate 30.93 percent of its target, the DOH said.
Negros Occidental has a total population of 2,623,026 and its 70 percent target for vaccination is 1, 825, 370, it added.
Lacson stressed the need for residents to get vaccinated to protect themselves against the highly contagious COVD-19 Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, the seven Negros Occidental residents who tested positive for the Omicron variant have already recovered and will no longer be retested, Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, provincial health officer, said.
They are watching out for areas where there are a clustering of COVID-19 cases and taking samples for testing at the Philippine Genome Center to determine what variant is hitting, Tumimbang said.*