MANILA, Philippines — The business advocacy group Go Negosyo has launched a monitoring system that will evaluate the pace and coverage of COVID-19 vaccination especially in the regions.
Go Negosyo described the system as a vaccination “dashboard,” which it also called “Vax to the Max.”
It aims to show the percentage of the population that has been inoculated against COVID-19 in key cities and regions across the country.
An area marked with a star means it has achieved an inoculation rate of 70 percent, while an area with a smiley emoticon indicates a rate ranging from 21 percent to 69 percent.
A dark, expressionless face, meanwhile, indicates vaccination coverage of 20 percent or lower.
Uncertainty
Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion, who also serves as presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, said “We would like to support the government’s efforts to encourage vaccination not just in [the] NCR (National Capital Region), but nationwide, so the local economy recovers, too. As more are vaccinated, more businesses can open up safely.”
Results of a recent survey conducted by OCTA Research, which partnered with Go Negosyo to advise the group on COVID-19 data issues, showed that among those who refuse to get vaccinated, 65 percent cited uncertainty over the safety of the shots as the main reason for their reluctance.
The poll said 77 percent of residents in Metro Manila and 78 percent in the rest of Luzon refused to get vaccinated for the same reason.
In Mindanao it was 73 percent. Only Visayas registered a low hesitancy rate of 33 percent.
‘Bakuna Bubbles’
“If we are to save lives and jobs, we need to vaccinate at least 70 percent in all regions,” Concepcion said in a statement, adding:
“We need to create ‘Bakuna Bubbles’ not just in NCR, but the rest of the country. Being vaccinated is our weapon in winning this war. Vaccines protect us from severe infection and hospitalization.”
The dashboard, which uses data from the Department of Information and Communications Technology, would be updated once or twice a week.
As of Friday, only 29.2 million Filipinos have been fully inoculated against COVID-19, out of the government’s “herd immunity” target of about 77 million.