Over 50% of faculty, tertiary students vaccinated vs. COVID-19 —CHED

About 87.1% of higher education institution (HEI) personnel and 59.7% tertiary students have already been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

In a statement Thursday, CHED chairman Prospero De Vera said of the 293,058 teaching and non-teaching personnel all over the country, 255,229 have been vaccinated as of December 29, 2021.

"This is a significant increase from the 72% vaccination rate at the start of the aggressive vaccination campaign in October 2021," he said.

Regions that have the most number of vaccinated HEI personnel are  the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with 95.24% or 7,940 out of the total 8,337 personnel; Region 3 with 94.08% or 24,831 out of 26,393; Region 2 with 93.78% or 8,604 out of 9,175; and Region 11 with 92.16% or 11,542 out of 12,524.

Meanwhile, of the 4,115,988 reported total number of tertiary students, 2,456,667 have been vaccinated, De Vera said.

"From this number, 43.21% are fully vaccinated while 16.42% have at least received their first dose," he added.

Regions that have the most number of vaccinated students are Region 9 with 85.38% or 123,897 out of the total number of 145,113 students in the region; Region 3 with 81.12% or 321,946 out of 396,866; and CAR with 75.65% or 84,436 out of 111,617 students.

"The Commission is happy to report that in many regions of the country, the vaccination rate of our education frontliners have reached herd immunity levels ensuring not only their availability to join face-to-face classes but more importantly, they are helping protect their families and communities from the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus," De Vera said.

De Vera said that the efforts of CHED regional offices, HEIs and their partner LGUs will now expand to help education stakeholders get booster shots in the first quarter of 2022.

Under CHED's guidelines, only fully-vaccinated students, teaching and non-teaching personnel are allowed to participate at limited face-to-face classes that started in December. —KBK, GMA News