26,000 Filipinos in Luzon, Visayas vaccinated with US help

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MANILA, Philippines — In the past seven months, the United States government has helped the Philippines vaccinate over 26,000 Filipino adults and children across Luzon and the Visayas, the US embassy in the Philippines said on Monday.

This was the accomplishment of the seven-month partnership of the US Peace Corps and the Department of Health and the United States Agency for International Development‘s (USAID) “ReachHealth” project, which was recently concluded in time for the resumption of face-to-face classes in the Philippines, the embassy said in a statement.

“The US Peace Corps is proud to have worked alongside local health officials and USAID over the past several months to protect the Filipino people from COVID-19 and prepare for safe face-to-face classes this academic year,” Peace Corps Philippines Country Director Jenner Edelman said, as quoted by the US embassy.

The US embassy said that in the absence of American volunteers due to the pandemic, it was the US Peace Corps medical team that administered vaccines, pre-screened patients, and provided post-vaccination health education in various clinics and jab sites in Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, and Cebu.

The medical team also volunteered in house-to-house vaccination activities in several barangays with non-medical staff who assisted in encoding the data, the embassy said.

In addition to their primary service agreements, American volunteers from the US Peace Corps will return to the Philippines in January 2023 to support COVID-19-related activities in their host communities, the US embassy said.

“Since 1961, over 9,300 US Peace Corps volunteers have served as co-teachers, youth development facilitators, environmental experts, or have filled other roles requested by host communities across the Philippines, the US Embassy said.

—LYRA FARILLON (INQUIRER.net TRAINEE)

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