BALANGA CITY — Gov. Albert Garcia on Tuesday announced that the target of Bataan is to have herd immunity from the coronavirus disease within three months or before the end of October 2021.
“Ito ang ating layunin dahil ito ang pinakamabisang paraan upang ating mapagtagumpayan ang pandemya at mapigilan ang patuloy na mutation ng coronavirus habang nagkakahawahan sa mga pamayanan,” the governor said.
Herd immunity from Covid–19 is said to be reached when enough people, estimated at 70 percent of the population, have developed protective antibodies through vaccination.
Garcia said that they have established 19 vaccination sites scattered in 11 towns and one city in the province to speed-up the vaccine rollout so that more people will be inoculated.
He added that additional inoculation sites will be opened as soon as more vaccines are delivered by the Department of Health.
So far received from DOH are 85,080 single dose vial Sinovac, 6,420 multi-dose (10-12) vial AstraZeneca, 8,250 single dose ampule Sputnik V, 3,900 multi-dose vial Pfizer and 530 multi-dose vial Moderna.
Vaccinated with the first dose are 91,731 individuals from the priority groups A1 (medical frontliners), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities) and A4 (essential workers) while 44,597 from A1 to A3 have taken the second jab.
Workers from the Freeport Area of Bataan in Mariveles town were the first to be vaccinated from the A4 category at the 19th inoculation site inside the FAB.
The governor reminded his constituents to be extra careful and to strictly follow minimum health and safety protocols to prevent the spike in Covid–19 cases and the entry in the province of the more feared “delta variant”.
Meanwhile, the number of new confirmed Covid–19 cases began to decrease on Monday after the rise in cases the past weeks that caused Bataan to be placed under the modified enhanced community quarantine from June 16 to July 31, 2021.
Tuesday report of the provincial health office showed that 29 newly tested positive of the virus while 44 newly recovered and two listed as new deaths.
With the new data, confirmed cases are now at 12,558 with 1,312 active ones, recoveries at 10,802 and casualties from the virus at 444.
The new confirmed cases are from Balanga City – 12, Mariveles – 10, Bagac – 4, Limay – 4, Hermosa – 2, Orion – 2, and Dinalupihan – 1.
Recoveries are from Hermosa (18), Limay (16), Abucay (4), Bagac (2), Balanga City (2), Orion (1), and Samal (1).
Among the new fatalities were 80-year-old male from Balanga City and 55-year- old male from Samal.
