The Department of Health (DoH) assured on Tuesday that it is ready to vaccinate 165,000 school children from Grades 1 to 7 in all public schools in Ilocos Region.

DoH Regional Director Paula Paz M. Sydiongco assured the public that there are enough vaccines to accommodate the target number of students for immunization.

“We will be prioritizing the vaccination of students from the public schools and then we will vaccinate grade school students in private schools because they are among those who should be given protection against vaccine preventable diseases,” she said.

Sydiongco added that the “Bakuna Eskuwela” Program is a school-based immunization program for school-aged Filipino children that will protect them against vaccine-preventable diseases including measles, rubella, diphtheria and human papilloma virus.

“Parents of children aged 0 months old and above can be vaccinated at their barangay health stations for their routine immunization schedules,” she added.

According to the data gathered by the DoH Regional Family Health Unit, as of October 2024, the province of Pangasinan has already given measles-rubella (MR) vaccine to 5,738 students and tetanus-diphtheria (TD) vaccines to 5,730 grade school students.

Meanwhile, La Union has 2,859 students immunized for MR and 2,855 for TD; Ilocos Norte has 2,319 for MR and 2,319 for TD; and Ilocos Sur with 2,387 for MR and 2,388 for TD.

Meanwhile, DepEd Regional Director Tolentino G. Aquino said they will continue conducting information campaigns on vaccine-preventable diseases to reduce vaccine hesitancy among their students.

“We have also conducted meetings with parents to inform them on the importance of getting vaccinated and to secure their consent for their child’s immunization,” Aquino said.