An ingenious way to convince hesitant residents to get COVID-19 jab in Marinduque

Marinduque Gov. Presbitero Velasco Jr., also President of the League of Provinces of the Philippines. (Image from LPP website)

MANILA, Philippines — Marinduque Governor Presbitero Velasco Jr. on Thursday admitted that he once held a raffle to encourage more constituents to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

He said giving incentives such as this has helped convince his constituents to get COVID-19 shots.

“Ine-encourage talaga namin, alam ninyo minsan nagpa-raffle ako para magpabakuna lang eh,” he bared in an interview on ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo.

(We are really encouraging them. I even held a raffle just to convince them to get vaccinated.)

“Nakatulong. Basta may raffle, masaya sila. Pero may right to choose pa rin sila ng bakuna,” he added.

(It helped. But they still have the right to choose their vaccines.)

He said the provincial government is continuously encouraging residents to get vaccinated with whatever vaccine is available, since the vaccine supply in the province is limited.

Velasco also encouraged his constituents to always comply with health and safety protocols to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

The Philippines has so far administered more than three million COVID-19 vaccine doses since the start of vaccination in March, of which over 2.2 million were administered as first dose while over 700,000 were given as second dose.

The Department of Health earlier said 37% or 2.7 million vaccine doses have been allocated to Metro Manila, which is considered the epicenter of coronavirus infections in the country.

More individuals may soon be vaccinated as the government prepares to start inoculating essential workers (A4) and indigent citizens (A5) in June.

The vaccine rollout for persons under said priority groups, however, will be concentrated initially in Metro Manila and eight other areas.

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