BY TVJ STAFF
MANILA (March 7)—The United States (US) Peace Corps in partnership with the Department of Health (DoH) and the US Agency for International Development’s (USAid) ReachHealth project is set to vaccinate more than 10,600 Filipinos, according to the US Embassy in the Philippines.
Jenner Edelman, US Peace Corps country director, said during her visit to a mass vaccination clinic in Quezon City they are pleased to team up with the Philippine government and USAid to support this critical, nationwide effort to protect the Filipino people and get children safely back to school in person.
The US Embassy said the vaccination will be conducted in mass vaccination clinics in Quezon City and Caloocan City.
The Embassy noted that amid the Omicron surge in January and February, doctors and nurses from the US Peace Corps helped fill critical healthcare worker shortages and meet vaccine demand by volunteering two days a week.
This was the first phase of a larger, nationwide effort to help protect the people against Covid-19 by increasing the vaccination rate, now at 71 percent with two doses.
In February, the Embassy said the US Peace Corps’ medical team was able to screen and vaccinate adolescents at mass vaccine clinics for ages 12 to 17 and gave vaccines to more than 2,700 patients aged 5 to 17.
The US Peace Corps together with DoH and USAid will continue to provide medical professionals and other support staff to conduct pediatric vaccine clinics for children aged 5 to 11 also in other parts of Luzon and the Visayas.
The Embassy said that in the absence of American volunteers due to the ongoing pandemic, the US Peace Corps is devoting all available resources, including its medical professionals who would otherwise be caring for American volunteers to support Philippine and US government partners in overcoming Covid-19 in the Philippines.
For more than 60 years, the US Peace Corps which is the US government’s premier volunteer organization has supported Filipino communities across the country.
That Embassy noted that over 9,300 American volunteers have served as co-teachers, youth development facilitators, environmental experts, or filled other roles requested by host communities over the decades.
On the other hand, USAid’s health and humanitarian assistance supports the Philippine government in implementing internationally recognized prevention, control and response strategies to protect Filipinos including the most vulnerable against Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.
The USAid has already provided $34.5 million in aid to improve the national and local responses through risk communication, laboratory strengthening, contact tracing, isolation, critical care management, logistics management, training, and acceleration of vaccine coverage.