The Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City began administering COVID-19 booster shots on its staff Wednesday, November 17, while health workers in the rest of the Negros Occidental provincial government hospitals will get theirs next week.
There are more than 1,700 health care workers in the nine provincial government-run hospitals
Pfizer vaccines will be administered, Dr. Claudelia Pabillo, who is in-charge of the provincial government’s vaccine distribution drive, said.
Pabillo said there are still a lot of influential people who are against COVID-19 vaccination, including some pastors, who discourage their congregation from getting inoculated.
We want to talk to them to explain the need for residents to get vaccinated, she said.
The Department of Health wants the provincial government to hit its vaccination target by December 15, but what Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson is saying “is we have to be realistic, the probability of our reaching herd immunity by December is difficult so he is setting a February target,” she said.
But as health workers they are still trying to hit the December target, she said.
The vaccination drive is improving because the province now has a lot of vaccines, Pabillo said.
Sagay Mayor Alfredo Marañon III said there has been an increase in the number of residents wanting to be vaccinated in his city after they heard that a lot of people died from the virus during the surge in September.
There are also a lot of children getting vaccinated and they bring their parents along with them, he said.
The Sagay City government raffles off groceries as incentives for residents to get vaccinated, Marañon said.*