The Department of Justice (DOJ) will recommend the inclusion of Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) in the three-day nationwide vaccination activities.

Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the DOJ will request the National Task Force Against Covid-19 to include PDLs in Bureau of Corrections facilities during the November 29 to December 1 mass inoculation drive.

“I understand that we have millions of doses available for this big event so this is the opportune time to consider the health of our PDL who are at risk of infection due to prison overcrowding,” Guevarra told reporters via text message on Monday.

A total of 17,295 PDL have received the Covid-19 vaccines as of data released last week, representing 35.52 percent of 48,689 inmates in BuCor-run facilities located in the National Capital Region (NCR), Mindoro Occidental, Zamboanga City, Palawan, and Davao del Norte.

Of the total, 4,173 are fully inoculated as of November 9.

In NCR, the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City has 3,100 of 3,360 PDL fully vaccinated while 10,997 at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, or 39 percent of 28,516 inmates, have likewise been inoculated although some have yet to complete their doses.

Also fully vaccinated are 60 out of 7,230 inmates at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in Davao del Norte and 1,003 of 2,304 at San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Talisayan, Zamboanga City.

To date, 600 out of 2,387 at Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Mindoro Occidental and all 822 detained at Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog have the first dose.

The Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa, Palawan has yet to vaccinate any of its 2,729 inmates, BuCor data showed. (PNA)