POPCOM urges LGUs to use new tool in assessing vulnerable communities

SAN FERNANDO CITY, June 30 (PIA) – The Commission on Population  in the Ilocos (POPCOM-1) urged the local government units (LGUs) to utilize a new tool established in assessing the demographic vulnerabilities in the communities. 

In a media briefing held by POPCOM-1 on June 11, POPCOM-1 Regional Director Erma Yapit said, “This tool with demographic indicators will determine which population of the city or municipality needs the most intervention.”

Further, she explained that the demographic variables include population density, household size, type of housing unit, and number of the most vulnerable population, particularly the older persons or senior citizens.

In the Ilocos Region, it was assessed that there are 1.13 million residents staying in houses under 20 square meters with an average of 4.5 persons per household according to the 2010 and 2015 Census of Population.

Furthermore, there are 95, 764 senior citizens, and 12, 251 live alone in single housing units with less than 20 square meters.

“Determining demographic vulnerable sectors will help LGUs in the formulation of effective and efficient guidelines and strategies to fight this coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and the data can be used to create policies relative to disaster response situations as well,” Yapit added.

Basically, POPCOM explained that vulnerability to the diseases are higher in housing units with larger size and higher densities, the more number of people living in every square meter of a housing unit, the more vulnerable the settlers are.

In this situation, social distancing is more difficult to observe in places or households with higher densities as it forces people to be in closer contact with one another.

Moreover, POPCOM recommended that if LGUs cannot provide a bigger space for families with dense living areas, they may opt to increase health services such as regular vaccination, free vitamin supplementation, or conduct other nutrition activities to increase immunity to diseases.

Yapit said that their agency will provide the initial demographic vulnerability tables to LGUs to facilitate their assessment.

“For LGUs with updated local data base such as from the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) or the Registry of Barangay Inhabitants and Migrants (RBIM), they may use their local data to generate further information about the concerned households,” said POPCOM-1 Project Evaluation Officer Roy Gerson Torres.

With this type of data, the facilitation of interventions against the spread of diseases such as monitoring cases and contract tracing, community-wide surveillance and response, provision of relief assistance and support services, and identification of community health care facilities can be easily implemented.

“We hope that our LGUs in the Ilocos will be interested in this new tool, and POPCOM is very willing to provide the necessary technical assistance to help in the assessment,” Yapit said. (AMB/AHFF/PIA 1)