FILE PHOTO An elderly resident of Olongapo City gets vaccinated against COVID-19. (Photo courtesy of Olongapo City Information Center)
LEGAZPI CITY — The Department of Health (DOH) in Bicol will intensify the vaccination campaign and tap other stakeholders after it only reached 67.77 percent coverage of the target A2 (Senior Citizens) population to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Dr. Ernie Vera, DOH Bicol chief, said in a forum on July 19 that the region was one of the lowest in the country despite the continuous campaign of the agency.
“They don’t want to get vaccinated because of misconception about the effects of it and they’re saying that they’ll be dying soon anyway,” Vera said.
He said the agency should reach at least 90 percent coverage of 549,286 target A2 population in the first 100 days of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s administration.
Vera said they would coordinate with the associations of the elderly and continue their demand generation to convince the senior citizens to vaccinate.
Dr. Maita Bobis, family health cluster head of DOH Bicol, said the village health workers would help them to strengthen the vaccination drive and convince the families in their communities.
“We capacitate people at the grassroots because we believe that even if we are expert[s] in explaining, it’s still hard to earn the trust of the patients. In other cities with high vaccination coverage, they tapped the health workers because they are close to the villagers,” Bobis said.
As of July 18, the region has vaccinated 75.76 percent of 5,040,943 total target population in the region.