Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) — The Commission on Higher Education is now finalizing a list of additional schools whose facilities will be used as inoculation sites as the government accelerates its vaccination program.
During the Laging Handa briefing, CHED Chairperson Prospero De Vera III said he will meet with the Department of Health this afternoon to discuss how more than 30 schools will be used in the said program.
“By this afternoon siguro may magandang balita na tayo kung ilan pang mga pamantasan ang makikipagtulungan sa mga local governments para dagdagan iyong vaccination centers na gagamitin natin mula itong mga susunod na linggo,” he added.
[Translation: Maybe by this afternoon we already have good news on how many more universities will partner with their local governments to increase the number of vaccination sites that we will use in the following weeks.]
De Vera assured that these schools have complied with the government standards to ensure safe implementation of the vaccination since they also retrofitted their facilities to be able to conduct limited face-to-face classes.
On March 26, the CHED announced that it has permitted 24 colleges and universities to hold limited in-person classes only for selected health-related courses. However, some schools have once again stopped this due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in their areas.
Along with this, the agency also said six higher education institutions partnered with their local governments to use their facilities as vaccination centers, namely University of Santo Tomas Hospital, Manila Central University Gymnasium, St. Louis University Baguio Gymansium, De La Salle Medical Health Sciences Institute, Our Lady of Fatima University, and Central Philippine University.
With the current spike in infections, the government placed areas several areas under enhanced community quarantine and said it will now speed up administration of vaccines by starting to inoculate other members of the priority groups including senior citizens and persons with comorbidities.
The country started vaccinating healthcare workers this month using supply donated by China and other nations. The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines bought by the Duterte administration arrived in the Philippines only Monday.
By year-end, national authorities are eyeing to immunize up to 70 million Filipinos.
