ILOILO City – Of the 84,518 teaching and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Western Visayas, 76,755 (or 90.81 percent) were already vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as of Feb. 3, 2022.
The 7,763 personnel still to be vaccinated are allowed to work from home, said Hernani Escullar Jr., information officer of DepEd-6.
“Some are waiting for the vaccination schedule of their LGUs (local government units) while others have comorbidities and are first seeking clearance from their doctors,” said Escullar.
“Per DepEd Task Force COVID-19 Memorandum 575 issued on Dec. 7, 2021, ang wala pa nabakunahan will be on a work-from-home arrangement with specific tasks assigned sa ila,” he added.
COVID-19 vaccination is not mandatory among DepEd personnel, but the unvaccinated must present negative results of their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test or antigen – which they have to pay on their own – to gain entry to their schools.
Here’s the breakdown per school division office (SDO) of the vaccinated DepEd-6 personnel (either first dose or fully vaccinated):
* Aklan (6,317), Antique (6,340), Bacolod City (4,642), Bago City (1,360), Cadiz City (1,828), Capiz (7,144), Escalante City (1,163), Guimaras (2,034), Himamaylan City (1,164), Iloilo City (3,060), Iloilo province (19,591), Kabankalan City (1,888), La Carlota City (968), Negros Occidental (10,842), Passi City (806), Roxas City (1,536), Sagay City (1,692), San Carlos City (1,231), Silay City (1,128), Sipalay City (981), Victorias City (884), and DepEd-6 regional office (156).
“Vaccination is not mandatory but we have to abide with the guidance from the (DepEd) Central Office,” said Escullar.
The guidance is DepEd Task Force COVID-19 Memorandum 575 that cited the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease’s (IATF) Resolution No. 148-B: “In areas where there are sufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccines as determined by the National Vaccines Operation Center (NVOC), all establishments and employers in the public and private sectors shall require their eligible employees who are tasked to do onsite work to be vaccinated against COVID-19.”
* Eligible employees who remain unvaccinated may not be terminated solely by reason thereof. However, they shall be required to undergo RT-PCR test regularly at their own expense for purposes of onsite work. Provided that, antigen test may be resorted to when RT-PCR capacity is insufficient or not immediately available.
* If the unvaccinated personnel will be required to report onsite, they shall be required to present a negative result of RT-PCR test undertaken at most 48 hours before the day of reporting, and which shall be valid for up to two weeks from the day of testing, unless the personnel develop symptoms, for which they shall stop reporting on-site and proceed to established health protocols.”
* The RT-PCR or antigen test of unvaccinated personnel who have refused to be vaccinated despite being eligible for vaccination shall be charged at the personnel’s expense.
The still to be vaccinated DepEd-6 personnel were from Aklan (258), Antique (746), Bacolod (461), Bago City (404), Cadiz City (75), Capiz (146), Guimaras (45), Himamaylan City (81), Iloilo City (142), Iloilo province (2,561), Kabankalan City (296), La Carlota City (16), Negros Occidental (1,668), Passi City (364), Roxas City (36), Sagay City (104), San Carlos City (104), Silay City (153), Sipalay City (48), Victorias City (53), and DepEd-6 regional office (one)./PN
