The Department of Education (DepEd) has highlighted that one out of three of the Philippines’ 27 million students are yet to receive a single shot of vaccines for COVID-19.
Only 5.3 million students have been fully vaccinated, Education Ministry spokesman Michael Poa said, adding that another 5.7 million have received just one shot.
RELATED STORY: Vaccination not required for students for physical classes in Philippines
“We would have wanted the numbers to be higher… But the truth of the matter is, the vaccination programme of the national government is not mandatory,” Poa was quoted as saying.
About 5.6 million primary, secondary and college students are set to return to in-person classes for the first time on Monday, more than two years since the government shut down schools as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The vaccine take-up is lowest among students 5 to 11 years old – at just 10 per cent, local media reports pointed out.
