By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The provincial government of Negros Occidental is targeting 100,000 Negrenses to be vaccinated against COVID-19 per week as the province still lags behind in the region’s vaccination program.

Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said they have deployed five vaccination teams to help local government units especially those lacking personnel and improve their vaccination rates.

In a meeting with the governor, Dr. Adriano Suba-an, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH) 6, said they are concerned about the slow rollout of the capitol’s vaccination activities.

Lacson, however, said that the province is ranked second in terms of the number of persons vaccinated in Western Visayas.

He pointed out that Negros Occidental has the highest target population to be vaccinated at 1,825,370.

“We will bring the vaccination program to the barangay level,” the governor added.

Lacson said there is a need for barangay captains to create demand for vaccination in their areas.

He also said that the provincial government is targeting to reach herd immunity against COVID-19 by February next year.

“We are studying ways to give incentives to encourage the barangay officials to perform well in the vaccination activities, ” Lacson said.

As of Saturday, November 13, Negros Occidental has 1,078 active COVID-19 cases with 28 new deaths, records of the Provincial Incident Management Team show./DGB, WDJ