The national Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) visited Bohol in order to promote the inoculation among senior citizens especially in areas still reeling from the effects of typhoon Odette, according to the report of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) released on Mar. 21, 2022.
IATF chief Sec. Vivencio Dizon along with Gov. Arthur Yap met with Bohol’s mayors in a dialogue on Mar. 18, 2022 at Bellevue Hotel, to get the pulse at the ground and to get recommendations on how to increase the the effort in vaccinating senior citizens.
In his speech, Dizon urged local chief executives to increase their efforts to inoculate more senior citizens with the Coronavirus disease (Covid) vaccine.
“We’ll have a dialogue, especially with the mayors on how we can provide incentives for the seniors, let’s give them assistance to entice them to get vaccinated. Let’s give them some help so that instead of asking them to the vaccination sites, let’s be the one to visit them to their homes,” Dizon said.
Dizon assured Bohol mayors of help coming from the IATF as the province transitions to Alert Level 1.
The IATF chief revealed that President Duterte gave the agency marching orders to visit provinces with low vaccination rate among senior citizens .
For his part, Yap assured Boholanos that there are programs that will put in place to transition to Alert Level 1 and help the local economy recover.
“Right now, our development program is hinged and is totally dependent on how we can open up the soonest. [With] the tourism and services industry right now, [with] the P20 billion in revenue lost, it’s very difficult to talk about any development in the province, unless we open up,” Yap added.
Bohol remains under Alert Level 2 until the end of March 2022.