The Department of Education (DepEd) revealed that almost 60 percent of teaching and non-teaching personnel nationwide already received their COVID-19 jabs, based on the latest vaccination report from the field.
According to Regional Focals, 588,561 or 56.73% of teaching and non-teaching personnel either received their first dose or already completed their immunization shots against COVID-19 from their local government units.
“I am very pleased to announce that more than half of the workforce of the Department of Education got their COVID-19 vaccine,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said.
“It goes to show that majority of us want to have a safer school year 2021-2022.”
“It goes to show that majority of us want to have a safer school year 2021-2022, especially that we are about to start the limited face-to-face classes,” Briones added.
Meanwhile, around 400,000 DepEd employees are either registered in their respective local governments and are currently waiting for their schedule or still undecided to be vaccinated for personal reasons.
The latest report also noted the upward trend of the percentage of vaccinated personnel as DepEd recorded 20% vaccination participation in July 2021, doubling its number in August 2021 with 40.40%.
“The data, covering 970,397 personnel from field offices and schools, are based on the submissions of the Regional COVID-19 Response/Vaccination Focals to the Bureau of Learner Support Service – School Health Division,” Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua stated.
“It is part of our shared responsibility to make sure that our family, friends, learners, and communities are safe.”
“Again, we are encouraging our teaching and non-teaching personnel to participate in the vaccination program of their LGUs or national government. It is part of our shared responsibility to make sure that our family, friends, learners, and communities are safe,” Del Pascua added.
Furthermore, the Department also showed that almost 286,203 personnel have already used the DepEd Mobile App Vaccination Tracker to self-report their vaccination status.
In July 2021, DepEd officially launched the DepEd Mobile App to provide personnel and teachers with a hassle-free way of providing their vaccination information as it will no longer require manual data collection in all governance levels.
Pascua, as Chairperson of the DepEd Task Force COVID-19 (DTFC), jointly issued DTFC Memorandum No. 513 with Undersecretary for Field Operations (OUFO) Atty. Revsee Escobedo to provide thorough guidelines as to how the regional offices will report the vaccination status of their locality.
The Department also specifically requested the breakdown of the vaccination numbers of the 638 identified schools as candidates for the pilot implementation of the limited face-to-face classes in low-risk areas.
