FIGHTING COVID Bangsamoro officials are eyeing areas near mosques as vaccination sites to ramp up vaccine coverage in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
—Divina M. Suson
ILIGAN CITY, Lanao del Norte, Philippines — The Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta, the Islamic advisory council in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), has issued another religious guideline to help ramp up the vaccination coverage in the region.
The national government has been worried about a possible mini surge of COVID-19 cases in the region as its vaccination coverage only stands at less than 30 percent of the target population.
President Rodrigo Duterte asked BARMM leaders, led by interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, during Monday’s recorded briefing to “give a little push for the people there to get vaccinated.”
“Let me just appeal to everybody: Get vaccinated or else we will not be able to solve the problem because there is a distinct possibility that those who were already vaccinated can get infected again,” Mr. Duterte said.
“The problem is the variants. There is no way of really telling in advance whether we’ll be hit hard or it would be an ordinary disease,” he added.
Coverage decline
The Darul-Ifta promulgates opinions related to issues that will have an impact on the practice of Islam.
On Tuesday, Bangsamoro Mufti (jurist) Abuhuraira Udasan issued Religious Guidelines No. 32 “in view of the decline in the anti-COVID-19 vaccination” in BARMM.
Udasan reminded Muslims that taking preventive and precautionary steps against a disease, such as COVID-19, is sanctioned by the Quran, and that vaccination is among those measures.
He said that in order to save a life, taking “unlawful food” such as swine “can be lawful.”
“Vaccination is a sort of lifesaving. Therefore, there [is] no doubt that the vaccine ingredient is lawful,” Udasan stated in the guidelines.
He also assured Muslims that vaccination would not invalidate their fasting during Ramadan.
BARMM health authorities had said that inoculation drives throughout the region would continue even during the holy month of Ramadan, which started on April 2. During this time, Muslims fast from sunrise to sundown.
The Darul-Ifta noted that gatherings in mosques was an opportunity for the vaccination team to get as many people inoculated.
“They may do so in [a] specific room beside or at the back part of the mosque or the place of worship,” the guidelines said.
Hubs
Last week, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said special vaccination days would be held in BARMM as the national vaccination programs shifted focus to areas with low inoculation coverage.
Galvez said the government was aiming to inoculate 215,776 in the BARMM or about 60 percent of some 1.5 million unvaccinated residents.
Maranao civic leader Samira Gutoc, a candidate for senator, welcomed the guidelines, saying setting up inoculation hubs near mosques brings the vaccination effort closer to the people.She urged all Muslims to troop to vaccination hubs and have themselves protected against COVID-19.
There is a high rate of vaccine hesitancy and refusal in the BARMM, mainly due to doubts about the shots being halal or lawful in Islam.
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