THIRTY-three percent of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) in jail facilities run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), but in-person jail visits remain suspended to prevent the transmission of the disease.
In a statement released Monday, Oct. 25, 2021, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said 40,875 of the 123,499 PDLs in BJMP facilities are now fully vaccinated, while 61.5 percent or 75,970 PDLs had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
“As part of our commitment, we will not stop until all the PDLs detained in BJMP-supervised jails have been fully vaccinated,” DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said.
The BJMP regional offices with the highest percentage of fully vaccinated PDLs as of Oct. 20, 2021 were the Cordillera Administrative Region with 98.28 percent or 1,084 of 1,103 PDLs fully vaccinated; followed by Northern Mindanao with 55.73 percent or 3,049 of 5,471 PDLs fully vaccinated; and the Bicol Region with 50.46 percent or 1,577 of 3,125 PDLs fully vaccinated.
On the other hand, 81.44 percent or 15,311 of the 18,801 BJMP personnel nationwide were also fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the DILG said.
The top performers, all of whom had reached 93 percent full dose vaccination of their workforce as of Oct. 20, were the BJMP Regional Offices of Ilocos Region, the Zamboanga Peninsula and Davao Region.
DILG Undersecretary and Spokesman Jonathan Malaya said face-to-face visits in BJMP jail facilities remain suspended to prevent Covid-19 transmission.
Instead, the PDLs may avail themselves of the jail facilities’ electronic services like e-Dalaw, Telehearing, e-Jail Inspection or Monitoring, e-Learning and e-Kumustahan telehearing.
Malaya said aside from the Covid-19 vaccines, influenza and pneumococcal vaccines had also been rolled out in jail facilities, with 79,387 PDLs already having received their flu vaccines and 3,812, their pneumococcal vaccines, as of September 2021.
For the BJMP personnel, 6,699 had received flu vaccines, while 530 had received pneumococcal vaccines as of September. (CTL)