MANILA — The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) has allowed the 2 municipalities that cover its campus to use its facilities for COVID-19 vaccination, joining the list of higher education institutions (HEIs) that are offering their spaces as immunization hubs.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said Wednesday that residents of Los Baños and Bay, the 2 towns covering the vast UPLB campus, began receiving jabs against the respiratory disease inside the university grounds since April 22.

UPLB tapped its medical professionals and support staff to assist the local government units in vaccinating residents, CHED said in a statement.

CHED Chairman Prospero de Vera said the inclusion of UPLB as a vaccination center assured the school's skeleton workforce of their vaccination in the coming months.

"Our education frontliners will be assured of their vaccination and there will be no delay in the processing of the documents of students who will continue their studies or look for work," he said.

The government recently moved education workers up its vaccination priority list, from the B1 to A4 cluster which is next in line to receive the vaccines after the current groups.

• ‘Assured of protection’: Education frontliners move up COVID vaccine priority list

Last week, De Vera said more than 20 HEIs have offered their facilities as COVID-19 vaccination sites.

As of Tuesday, more than 1.5 million first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the country, while nearly 247,000 were administered as 2nd dose.

• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

The Philippines aims to vaccinate up to 70 million of its 108 million people to achieve herd immunity.

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