BARMM to hold special COVID-19 vaccination drive in May

 (AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — A special COVID-19 vaccination drive will be conducted in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) next month to address the low vaccination rate in the region.

“Magkakaroon tayo ng ating Bayanihan, Bakunahan exclusively dito sa BARMM (we will have a Bayanihan, Bakunahan here at BARMM),” said BARMM Ministry of Health Director General Dr. Amirel Usman in an interview over ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo.

Vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said that the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization warned that BARMM may experience a “mini surge” of COVID-19 infections as it has the lowest vaccine coverage among the country’s 17 regions.

According to Usman, local officials plan to administer the vaccine to 215,776 persons during these target dates:

• Basilan (May 11-13, May 16-18); 35,400 target number
• Lanao del Sur (May 16-20);  50,250 target number
• Maguindanao (May 17-19); 70,321 target number
• Sulu (May 11-13); 25,500 target number
• Tawi-Tawi (May 18-20); 18,400 target number
• Marawi City (May 5-7); 12,900 target number
• Lamitan City (May 11-13); 3,000 target number

Usman said that there are 959,694 fully vaccinated individuals in the region, representing only 28 percent of the target population.

He explained that there is already a sufficient supply of vaccines in the region and blamed vaccine hesitancy as the main reason for the low coverage.

 “We have enough vaccines at the moment. Ang problema talaga natin ‘yung hesitancy until now… especially doon sa ating kababayan na nasa malalayong lugar at tiyak sa tinatawag nating geographically isolated, disadvantaged areas,” he said.

 (The real problem we have is hesitancy. Especially among those who are in remote areas and also in what we call geographically isolated, disadvantaged areas.)

Usman, however, assured that the local government has already intensified its information drive to combat the vaccine hesitancy, disinformation and misinformation.

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