GET JABS HERE More than 2,000 university students in Tarlac province get vaccinated on Oct. 24 as part of the Commission on Higher Education’s drive to protect more college students from COVID-19. —PHOTO COURTESY OF FRANC LEWIS JUANATAS
TARLAC CITY, Tarlac, Philippines — The government needs to put up more provincial vaccination sites for college students in order to speed up the inoculation program, as a limited number of colleges and universities launch in-person classes, said J. Prospero de Vera III, chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), on Saturday.
De Vera said the agency intended to provide jabs to more students until the end of November when more vaccines become available.
The CHEd official was here to witness 2,500 college students receive their first dose of the Moderna vaccine at the Tarlac State University (TSU) gymnasium.
“We are prioritizing nursing and medical students who are in their fourth year because they will be encouraged to help with the vaccination [of the general populace],” De Vera said, so the jab process in campuses needs to be efficient.
“If the cooperation between the local universities and the Department of Health is good and there are appropriate vaccination sites opened, then the vaccination of college campuses would be faster since schools already have the roster of students,” he said at a news conference.
First in north Luzon
Tarlac is the first province in northern Luzon to vaccinate students following the Oct. 20 vaccination rollout for Laguna student-athletes that was held at the CHEd auditorium in Quezon City.
This was also the first vaccination program for state universities and colleges in Central Luzon, which benefited students of TSU, the Tarlac Agricultural University (TAU), and other colleges in the province.
Within the next two weeks, the TSU gymnasium will be opened for a second batch of 15,000 students from its campus and 7,000 TAU students, said TSU president Myrna Mallari.
“Because of the vaccinations, we are finally ready to have face-to-face learning which we need since we are being trained to handle lives,” said Richelle Ann Borja, 22, a fourth-year TSU nursing student.
Borja, the first in her household to be vaccinated, stressed the importance of getting protected from COVID-19 so they could also protect the future patients they would have to attend to.