DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, April 25 (PIA) -- The Department of Health (DOH) Region 7 has identified the local government units (LGUs) in the province with low vaccination rate.

The said LGUs include La Libertad, Siaton, Manjuyod, Guihulngan City, Sta. Catalina, Mabinay, Jimalalud, Bindoy, and the cities of Tanjay and Bais.

The Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force (PIATF) against COVID-19 cited that regardless of the low COVID-19 for the past weeks, the province was still placed under Alert Level 2 due to its low vaccination rate.

Dr. Liland Estacion, ground commander of PIATF, has urged the said LGUs with low vaccination rate for senior citizens and general population to strengthen their strategies to ramp up their vaccination coverage in a PIATF meeting on April 25.

Estacion appealed to the senior citizens and eligible population in their communities to be vaccinated for their protection against the virus and for the province to possibly be de-escalated to Alert Level 1.

As of April 25, the health officer reported that Negros Oriental had vaccinated only 41.2% or 52,367 of its 126,914 senior citizen target population.

Of the total 990,637 target population in the province, 557,010 individuals or 56.2% have been fully vaccinated or with second doses; 585,799 for the first dose; and 77,520 received booster shots as of April 25.

Estacion added that from April 14-25, her office received 419 RTPCR results from various DOH-accredited COVID-19 Testing Centers with 412 negative, nine recoveries, and seven positive (five new cases and two repeat swabs).

Of the 23,540 total number of COVID-19 cases reported since the province was affected by the pandemic from Jan. 30, 2020 to April 25, 2022, around 741 deaths and 23,000 recoveries have been reported. (JCT/PIA7 Negros Oriental)