A healthcare worker administers a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot during a recent pediatric vaccination in Olongapo City. (Photo courtesy of Olongapo City Information Center)
MANILA, Philippines — The use of school premises as vaccination sites may continue as long as it is not conducted inside classrooms, Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Friday.
The DOH official made the clarification following the Department of Education’s (DepEd) issuance of Order No. 37 on Thursday stating that “schools shall not be used as quarantine and/or isolation facilities or vaccination centers.”
Vergeire noted that the schools have been utilized as vaccination sites as well as quarantine and isolation facilities because there were no classes back then. Now that in-person classes have resumed, naturally, students’ use of their classrooms would take precedence.
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“This Department Order aims, or the intention would be for them to remove yung mga ganitong pag-gamit sa eskwelahan (this kind of purpose) for other things for the response so it can be used by the students already,” Vergeire said in a press briefing.
“But this does not preclude the Department of Education and the school to set-up vaccination sites within the premises of the school,” she also said.
Therefore, this order does not prohibit the use of school premises as vaccination sites, according to Vergeire.
“So, hindi po titigil ang bakunahan sa eskwelahan. Kinaklaro po natin, at kinlaro din ng DepEd, ayaw lang natin na yung mismong mga silid-aralan nagagamit at hindi nagagamit sa pag-aaral ng mga bata,” she pointed out.
(So, the vaccination operations in schools would not stop. We have clarified this; the DepEd clarified this also. We just don’t want the classrooms itself to be used as vaccination sites, instead of being used for studying.)
Data from the DOH said at least 76 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of September 1, which includes 6.8 million senior citizens, 9.9 million adolescents and 4.7 million children.
The Philippines on Friday reported a total of 3,886,395 COVID-19 cases, including 23,703 active cases, 3,800,782 recoveries and 61,910 deaths, according to DOH.