- GILBERT BAYORAN
The Chikiting Ligtas campaign of the Department of Health, which is supposed to end May 31, has been extended to June 16.
Negros Occidental, meanwhile, remains on top of the list of provinces and highly-urbanized cities in Western Visayas with the highest number of children getting the measles-rubella and bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine, as of May 26.
In an advisory, the DOH Western Visayas Center for Health Development, said that it has vaccinated 509,102 children five years and below, for measles, rubella and polio, as of May 30.
Herd immunity can only be achieved once the immunization coverage rate for MR (measles rubella) reaches 95 percent, DOH6 regional director, Dr. Adriano Suba-an, said.
“With this, the conduct of the MR-bOPV SIA as well as the moratorium on CHD activities that can disrupt the implementation of the campaign shall be extended until June 16, in order to improve the supplemental immunization activity coverage of Western Visayas,” Suba- an added.
LGUs in Negros Occidental that logged the required 95 percent accomplishment were Himamaylan City with 103.88 percent; Murcia at 103.05 percent; Silay City, 99.65 percent; Talisay City, 97.55 percent; and Kabankalan City, 94.47 percent.
Overall, a total of 189,126 of the 222,590 being targeted for vaccination have already been inoculated in the province, as of May 26./GB
