DOH sets massive school-based immunization vs. measles after classes start in June

The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said it will continue its efforts to immunize grade school children against measles as soon as classes officially start.

"We will restart our massive school-based immunization probably about two weeks after schools open," Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a World Immunization Week press conference in Manila.

He cited data which show that out of the targeted 8.5 million children in kindergarten to Grade 6, only around 944,000 have been immunized from measles since February.

On the other hand, the two other age groups—children under five years old and those 12 years old and above—achieved a 93-percent and 42-percent immunization coverage, respectively.

"The reason for this is obvious. When we launched our outbreak response immunization, the schools were on the tail-end of the school year and so classes ended," Duque said.

The Department of Education has announced that the start of classes will be on June 3, 2019.

DOH tallied over 31,000 measles cases from January 1 to April 13, 2019. It, however, said that the measles outbreak is almost over as the number of reported measles cases continues to decrease.

Duque said that the lifting of the outbreak declaration would also be based on the improvements in the immunization coverage among the three aforementioned age groups. —KBK, GMA News