THE VACCINATION rate of faculty members, students and school staff are up, the Commission on Higher Education said.

“The vaccination rates for faculty, staff, and students continue to increase but we need to push harder during the three-day vaccination drive to facilitate limited face-to-face classes,” CHED Chairman Prospero de Vera III said during the “Padyak Para sa Flexible Learning: Sama- samang Vaccination Program” in Region 6.

Based on reports from higher education institutions, 82 percent of faculty and HEIs employees have received at least one jab of Covid19 vaccine. This is 10 percent higher than the reported 72 percent vaccination rate in October.

The CHED Regional Offices collect data on the number of vaccinated HEI personnel (teaching and non-teaching). As of November 25, 2021, all regions reported 70 percent or above HEIs’ vaccination rate. Regions 3, 8, 11 and CAR reported a close to 90 percent vaccination rate.

Meanwhile, students’ vaccination rate also significantly went up from less than 30 percent to now 46 percent due to the aggressive school-based vaccination drive spearheaded by CHED in cooperation with the Department of Health, the National Task Force Against Covid19, local government units, and partner HEIs.

“Since vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez, Jr. and I launched the Padyak Para sa Flexible Learning: Sama-samang Vaccination Program at the Mabalacat City College and Our Lady of Fatima University on October 13, 2021, we have seen a consistent increase in the number of HEIs that have launched vaccination for their faculty, staff, and students either in their own facilities, or by working closely with their LGUs to hold vaccination days only for students,” De Vera said.

Based on reports of 2,013 HEIs as of November 25, 2021, 1,839,846 tertiary students have been vaccinated against Covid19.

Regions 9 (70.1 percent), CAR (57.5 percent), NCR (54.2 percent) are the top three regions with the highest reported percentage of vaccinated tertiary students.

De Vera said that the vaccination drive in higher education has gained momentum all over the country, but the whole higher education sector needs a more urgent and aggressive effort especially on November 29-December 1 and December 15-17 to reach herd immunity.

“With more than adequate supplies of vaccines, the challenge now is to increase vaccination centers and vaccinators so we can help reach the target of three million jabbed individuals during the three-day national vaccination program,” De Vera said.

“I ask all our CHED regional offices to continue facilitating the partnership between our HEIs, LGUs, and DOH personnel during the 3-day Bayanihan, Bakunahan: Ligtas, Lakas, Buong Pilipinas,” the CHED chief added.