ALAMINOS CITY, Pangasinan — The Department of Health in Ilocos is seeking to to hire more than 500 nurses to further boost the vaccination drive in the region, according to DoH-CHD-1 director Dr. Paula Paz Sydiongco.

Sydiongco disclosed that at least 250 nurses would be deployed to Pangasinan and the rest to Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, and La Union, adding that the Department has allotted P111 million to the region for hiring new nurses.

The nurses will be under a contract of service.

To recall, the DoH-CHD-1 has deployed more vaccinators to Pangasinan and La Union to boost the inoculation campaign in the region and previously, its media relations officer disclosed that all the job order nurses in the regional office were already sent out to the communities as augmentation.

The agency added that the local government units — through their health personnel — are continuously steering their vaccination schedules and pursuing all avenues to make available to the public the needed booster shots.

The DoH-CHD-1 targets a vaccination rate of 90 percent for senior citizens to complete the first and second doses and aims to provide booster shots to 50 percent of the 12 years old and above target population, for the first 100 days of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on 8 October.

As of 1 September, about 3.8 million residents of the Ilocos region have completed their doses, while 1.1 million got their first booster shot, comprising 87.74 percent and 26.45 percent of the target populations, respectively.

About 445,781 senior citizens, or 83.97 percent of the target, have received their complete dose of the vaccine.