Oral polio vaccination drive in Mindanao extended

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that they were extending until Friday the supplemental oral polio vaccine (OPV) drive in Mindanao as a number of provinces in the island have yet to reach the target 95-percent coverage rate.

Duque said that while they saw a good number of children vaccinated against polio during their two-weeklong OPV drive in Mindanao, this still fell short of the ideal immunization rate to prevent the spread of the debilitating disease.

“There are still areas with clustering of low vaccination coverage. It’s not low, but it’s below 95 percent,” Duque told reporters on Monday.

Data from the Department of Health showed that by the end of the OPV drive in Dec. 7, the whole of Mindanao only achieved an average coverage rate of 93 percent.—Jovic Yee