By Christine Fabro
The Dinagat Islands Provincial Health Office (PHO) appeals to begin vaccinating its economic frontliners or those residents who belong to the A4 priority group.
In a Laging Handa public briefing on Saturday (July 3), Dinagat Islands Provincial Health Officer Dr. Jillian Lee said that as of July 3, only 6,000 of its residents or 3% of its total population have received at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19.
COVID-19 cases in the province continue to increase, however, Lee said that the situation has improved compared with the previous months.
“As of today, increasing pa rin iyong cases namin ng COVID-19 pero mas mabagal na compared sa peak namin na naitala noong May at June. Actually, nag-start na mag-increase ang cases namin noong first week of April 2021 after naming mag-open ng border,” Lee said.
Currently, the Dinagat Islands PHO is doing a simultaneous vaccination for priority groups A1, A2, and A3.
“Umaapela kami sa [Department of Health] na payagan na kami na mag-start sa pag-vaccinate ng A4 na priority population,” she added.
In February this year, the National Task Force released a memorandum that eases the travel restrictions to Dinagat Islands. The Health department has since observed an increase in COVID-19 cases in the province.
“After seven months ng zero cases of COVID-19 in 2020 and three months na walang local transmission, naka-record na kami ng community transmission sa lahat ng seven municipalities namin. So, doon din iyong peak namin na highest record number namin ng active cases, 254 ay nangyari sa last week of May 2021,” she said.
Lee said that among variants of concern, there were six reported cases of Beta COVID-19 variant last May.
As of today, there were no new reported cases of any of the variants. – rir
