February 15, 2021 – As part of the assistance in delivering accurate and relevant information related to the COVID-19 pandemic response, the Department of Education (DepEd) hosted experts on the field to discuss the government vaccination program and emerging developments about the virus.

On Monday, Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho and Dr. Althea de Guzman from the Department of Health (DOH), alongside Professor Nina Gloriani of the UP-Manila College of Public Health graced the DepEd-led webinar for education stakeholders.

Dr. Ho disclosed the government’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program and its process, benefactors, among others, while Dr. Guzman imparted necessary information on how the new COVID-19 variants are transmitted and what could be the added risk of it. Meanwhile, Dr.  Gloriani shared the effects of the COVID-19 vaccines to the people as part of our current response.

“Siguro ‘yong gusto lang din po nating ma-emphasize dito sa lahat is as much as we always want Science to be precise, to be very exact, Science is also evolving. Kaya as we learning more about the vaccines, we will also let you know [about them],” shared Dr. Ho.

The webinar aims to enhance DepEd’s response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic by upgrading our skills and also our knowledge on the virus and its emerging variants and provide information on the government’s program and response efforts.

Undersecretary for Planning Service, Human Resource and Organizational Development Jesse L.R. Mateo noted that the webinar helped in enlightening the DepEd community’s role, which includes the teachers, parents, and personnel in the vaccination program.

“While we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel with the development of several vaccines alongside the government’s effort for the country’s vaccination program, we cannot let our guards down. Hence, it is more critical to improve public awareness and preparedness,” Usec. Mateo said.

Mateo encouraged everyone to share important information from the webinar to other people to make it easier to understand the government’s existing interventions.

“My suggestion, at appeal ko na rin sa inyo is for us to share this knowledge [with] our family members. Who knows ‘no? Our family members will also share it with their peers, with their colleagues, with their friends,” Usec. Mateo said.

“As in the Department of Education, [we] commit to support government’s effort to promote information dissemination about the vaccine as well as about the new variants,” he added.

Furthermore, DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones assured in an interview that teachers will not be the one administering the vaccine, instead they will be leading the information drive related to the government’s vaccination program.

“Dini-deny namin iyong perception na ang mga teachers ay sila mismo ang mag-vaccinate ng ating mga kabataan or your fellow teachers dahil may COVID o wala, anong klaseng sakit o wala, very strict ang protocol sa medicine na kung hindi ka trained medical personnel, hindi ka naman talagang isasabak sa mga medical procedures,” Secretary Briones said.

The said webinar was organized by the DepEd-Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS) as an aid to the government’s information drive for the COVID-19 vaccination program.

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