Over 70k inmates nationwide vaccinated vs. COVID-19 — BJMP

More than 70,000 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) nationwide have been vaccinated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) said Tuesday.

In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, BJMP spokesperson Xavier Solda said a total of 74,730 have been vaccinated out of the 123,848 PDLs in 472 jails.

“That’s roughly around 60% na po (already),” Solda said.

“Sabi nga ng aming chief… ‘yung aming mga regional director ‘wag muna magpahinga. Tuloy-tuloy dapat ang coordination sa local government at ang aming director for health service lagi naka-contact sa national vaccine operation center,” he added.

(Our chief asked our regional directors to keep working. Coordination should continue with the local government and our health service director is also always in contact with the national vaccine operation center.)

Solda said the BJMP has recorded a total of 4,595 positive cases, of which 4,404 have recovered from the illness.

There are 72 PDLs being monitored at the BJMP’s COVID Center facility.

“Nagtayo po tayo ng Ligtas COVID centers para immediately matugunan natin ‘yung may mga mild symptoms lamang na COVID patients natin,” he said.

(We established Ligtas COVID centers for us to be able to immediately monitor patients with mild symptoms.)

BuCor

Meanwhile, Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) spokesman Gabriel Chaclag said they have yet to administer the 10,000 vaccine doses recently allocated to them.

“[T]uloy-tuloy naman po ang promise sa atin, ang advise sa atin dito sa BuCor ay tuloy-tuloy po ‘yung pagbibigay. In fact, initially, ay ‘yung 10,000 na vaccines ay hindi pa natin nauubos,” he said.

(They promise, they tell us that they will keep giving vaccines. In fact, the initial 10,000 vaccines are not yet depleted.)

Chaclag said this was because they can only vaccinate 1,000 PDLs per day.

“Pag medyo nasanay na ‘yung mga personnel natin ay 1,500 to 2,000 per day hanggang sa maubos ‘yung allocation natin and then bibigyan ulit tayo,” he said.

(Once our personnel gets used to it, we can vaccinate 1,500 to 2,000 per day. Then they’ll give us another allocation.)

The BuCor spokesman said the allocations came from the Muntinlupa Government.

“Pero ngayon, nag-allocate po ang DOH ng certain amount of vaccines spefically for PDLs dito sa Muntinlupa, dito sa New Bilibid Prison,” he said.

(The DOH allocated a certain amount of vaccines for PDLs here in Muntinlupa, in the New Bilibid Prison.)

In August, months since the onset of the pandemic, Chaclag said no PDL has been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Due to this, Solda urged local governments to keep in mind the vaccination of PDLs.

“Hopefully, ‘yung ating mga LGU heads ay ‘wag po nilang makalimutan ‘yung kanilang constituencies na nasa BJMP facilities,” he said.

(Hopefully, our local government heads won’t forget about their constituencies in BJMP facilities.) — RSJ, GMA News