The regional offices of the Department of Education (DepEd 11) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED 11) has committed to intensify the school-based vaccination and education information campaign (EIC) for the upcoming full-blast face-to-face classes on November 2, 2022.
Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson of the Davao City Covid-19 Task Force, said DepEd and CHED committed that before the schools will conduct vaccination, they will allocate time for EIC to convince more students, parents, and guardians.
“Ang nakuha nato na commitment sa atoang mga eskwelahan, they will intensify school-based vaccination pati na ang education information campaign. In fact, before sila magconduct ug Covid vaccination mag-allot sila ug time para sa EIC para mas daghan pa ilang makumbinsi na mga estudyante, parents, guardians particularly sa 5 to 11 years old kay mao na ang pinaka gamay nato nga number of vaccinees,” Schlosser said.
Schlosser said that DepEd and CHED also committed to continue monitoring the number of cases and help manage it to avoid infection.
“Good practice sa atong mga eskwelahan, they are requiring RT-PCR test upon enrolment and also katong medical and allied students they are require to do RT-PCR test before they go on duty sa mga hospitals and after mahuman sa ilang rotation. Gi-remain to nila ang health declaration form sa mga estudyante as most of our cases are from medical and allied, college students and graduate schools,” she said.
Schlosser added that the city’s health cluster has open communication now with DepEd and CHED for updating, ways forward, and monitoring of cases.
“Last Sept. 30 we had a meeting with DepEd ug CHED as well as katongn mga eskwelahan nga naay cluster of cases and nadunggan nato ang mga difficulties and ilang management when they had the cases. Also during the meeting there was an exchanged of ideas how to manage Covid at their level. Mao lang na nga paraan kay dili man nato ma force ang mga parents, guardians to really vaccinate those wala pa nabakunahan and what we can do in our end is to continuously convince them through EIC and kung naa man cases ma-mitigate dayon nato ang risk of spread,” she said.
In July this year, Education Secretary Vice President Sara Duterte ordered public and private schools all over the country to transition to five days of in-person classes starting November 2, 2022.