Pangasinan vaccinates nearly 1 million residents

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines — Close to one million residents of this province have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Gov. Amado Espino III said 969,000 people or 49 percent of the eligible population in Pangasinan have received their COVID jabs, 22 percent of them fully vaccinated.

Starting next month, Espino said the provincial government would intensify its vaccination drive to ensure that 70 percent of residents would be inoculated before the end of the year.

With the decline in the number of COVID cases in Pangasinan, Espino said they would ask the national pandemic task force to place the province under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) by next month.

Pangasinan is currently under GCQ with heightened restrictions.

The number of active cases in the province is down to 1,148 as of Oct. 23 from a high of 4,844 on Sept. 12.

Espino said daily new cases dropped to 81 from 878 during the same period.

In Eastern Visayas, the Department of Health-Center for Health Development said it would ramp up vaccination to ensure that 70 percent of the eligible population in the region would receive at least one shot by the end of the year.

DOH regional director Exuperia Sabalberino said 889,789 residents have received their first dose while 722,216 or 21 percent of the targeted 3,362,637 have been fully vaccinated as of Oct. 22.