Ilocos Norte holds COVID-19 mass vaccination for students

Students at the Mariano Marcos State University in Ilocos Norte province get inoculated against COVID-19 on Monday, Nov 8. (Photo courtesy of MMSU)

LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte—The Commission on Higher Education and a state university in Ilocos Norte province launched on Monday (Nov. 8) a mass vaccination against COVID-19 among its students in preparation for the conduct of face-to-face classes, officials said.

The vaccination drive in Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) aims to vaccinate at least 800 students, according to Dr. Shirley Agrupis, university president, in a speech during the ceremonial vaccination.

Agrupis said 75 percent of the total student population in the university had already been vaccinated.

“We are only aiming now for about 3,000 students to [reach] 100-percent vaccination [rate],” she said.

Agrupis appealed to the deans and student coordinators to help the university to reach out to unvaccinated students as it is “the only protection that we could get to sustain the viability of the education system in the region.”

“There is no rule that students will not be allowed to attend face-to-face classes if they are unvaccinated. But if we fail to entice and subject them to vaccination, then we fail,” she said.

On Saturday, the provincial government announced that Ilocos Norte would be under COVID-19 Alert Level 2 beginning Monday.

This means that limited in-person classes for 50-percent capacity in the province would already be allowed under three conditions which include a high vaccination rate among students and faculty.

Dr. Gretchen Ranada, vaccination team leader of nearby Mariano Marcos Hospital, said at least 27,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had already been administered to the employees of the university since June.

JPV