DOH Ilocos steps up COVID-19 vaccination among workers

LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte — The Department of Health (DOH) in the Ilocos region is stepping up its efforts against COVID-19 by conducting vaccinations in workplaces for employees in public and private offices.

In a statement this week, DOH assistance regional director Helen Tobias said that “workplace vaccination has its own benefits both to employers and employees.”

On August 2, the workplace vaccination activity was kicked off at the regional office of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in La Union province.

Tobias said that the recent move reflected the need to provide a layer of protection to “employees, customers, and other stakeholders” for more safe and secure workplaces as well as improved morale among employees.

“First, [workplace vaccination] is cost-effective as it decreases time missed from work to get vaccinated and also reduces absences due to illness,” she added.

Tobias noted that the vaccination is one of the strategies that they would be doing to achieve greater vaccination coverage in the region, especially in administering boosters shots that remained lagging with only 24 percent or 934,304 individuals of the over 3.7 million fully vaccinated individuals had gotten their booster shots.

At least 8.3 million vaccine doses were administered in the region.

She added that various local government units in the region had “committed to reach their targets and all avenues would be utilized to make the vaccine easily accessible to all.”

READ: Health authorities rush to vaccinate more kids in Ilocos region