Lacson said yesterday, June 13, that the Covid-19 vaccination campaign of the province is experiencing difficulty in convincing some sectors to have themselves vaccinated.
“On Saturday, I was with San Carlos City Mayor Renato Gustilo and he expressed his disappointment (on the situation),” Lacson said, adding that the former is creating new enemies because of their drive to have many more residents to be vaccinated.
“When Gustilo asked his residents why they don’t want to be vaccinated, they said they don’t believe in the vaccines with some religious sectors saying no with the same line reasoning that have been given before,” he said.
Lacson said he knows that Covid-19 cases are rising again with Metro Manila facing an escalation to Alert Level 2 status.
“We have made known to the public that vaccination indeed does help and there are still some sectors who are adamant having themselves vaccinated,” the governor stressed.
But he said, “we just have to continue pushing for it… we should find ways to convince people, especially the senior citizens.”
When he discussed the low vaccination rates of some local government units (LGUs), Lacson noted that the mayors told him that it is really the refusal of their residents that is hard to deal with.
Negros Occidental needs to vaccinate 70 percent of its target general population and 80 percent of their target senior citizens in order that its current Alert Level 2 status can be deescalated to Alert Level 1.
The Department of Health (DOH) has set an 80 percent target of the total population, at 2,098,421 residents, while a separate target of 85 percent has been set for senior citizens
As of yesterday, only 136,073 of the 269,602 senior citizens eligible for vaccination have received their jobs or about 50 percent, DOH – Western Visayas reported.
Of the 1,429,622 adult population in the province eligible for inoculation only 65 percent or 930,099 have been fully vaccinated, the line agency added.*