Only half of the targeted 16 million children have been reached by health authorities during Wednesday鈥檚 National School Deworming Day (NSDD).
In a press briefing, Department of Health (DOH) spokesperson Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy said a total of 8,108,979 had been dewormed in participating public schools as part of the agency鈥檚 nationwide campaign.
But DOH Undersecretary Vicente Belizario said the 8.1 million was only a partial figure as the DOH was still waiting for more reports from their local offices.
On Wednesday, the DOH launched the National School Deworming Day in a bid to rid some 16 million school-aged children of soil-transmitted helminthiasis.
Belizario said the agency would be conducting mop-up operations in areas where deworming efforts had not been completed.
鈥淲ithin one week, there will be mopping out operations to reach the 16 million mark,鈥� said Belizario.
The DOH said the students who were hospitalized after taking deworming tablets experienced normal side effects during the process of eliminating intestinal parasites.