The Department of Health (DOH) in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) will establish additional vaccination sites in public places and convergence areas in connection with the upcoming Mindanao-wide polio mass immunization campaign.

Dr. Edvir Jane Montañer, family health cluster head of the DOH-12, said the move is aimed to ensure that all children aged five years old and below within the region will be immunized and protected against the poliovirus.

Montañer said they are currently working with provincial, city and municipal health offices to ensure that all eligible children, estimated at over 300,000, will be captured by the two-round immunization activity set on Nov. 25 to Dec. 7 and on Jan. 6 to 18 next year.

Montañer said all rural health units and barangay health stations will open for the immunization activity while vaccination teams will be assigned to conduct house-to-house visits.

For residents of “gated subdivisions,” she said they should submit their children for immunization in the nearest health center.

She said they may also get the vaccines in additional posts that will be set up during weekends in identified public places and convergence areas. These include passenger terminals, shopping malls, churches, parks, and other public places, she said.

The official said they did not set a target for the campaign “because what we want is no child should be left behind.”

“We are not focusing on a fixed number as we want to capture those who are not included in the master list of eligible children,” she said in a forum.

Montañer appealed to parents and guardians of infants and children covered by the mass immunization to cooperate with the vaccination teams.

For the two rounds of polio immunization, she assured that they have enough supplies of vaccines, which were provided by the United Nations Children’s Funds. (PNA)