A Department of Health (DOH) 7 (Central Visayas) official said Tuesday they are closing all coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccination sites run by local government units (LGUs) to pave the way for “purok” or zone-level inoculation of eligible individuals.
“With the upcoming release of the guidelines for the ages 12 to 17 and the allowance of the general population approach instead of subgroups, we will hopefully expect better vaccination rates,” DOH-7 chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said in a message to the media.
The target timeline for this new scheme in inoculating residents of Central Visayas is mid-October, Loreche said.
The shift in strategy, she said, will now follow the concept of “bringing the vaccination right at the doorstep of the LGUs.”
Her statement came as the health agency noticed slower inoculation of prioritized sectors, such as senior citizens and people who have comorbidities.
Loreche, who serves as spokesperson for the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center, said convincing the elderly to be vaccinated “might be a real challenge.”
She noted that some senior citizens refuse to get inoculated, believing that “they don’t need the vaccines as they are old already.”
“Another might be, the feeling that they don’t want to go out of their homes and travel to a vaccination site and lastly, the fear that these vaccines are not safe, which is highlighted due to stories about adverse events,” Loreche told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a separate message.
As of Monday, 217,547 senior citizens in Central Visayas have received their second dose of the Covid-19 vaccines, which represents only 37 percent of the 595,058 elder citizens eligible for inoculation. On the other hand, 165,433 are first dose recipients.
“We actually salute our LGUs in that they are adjusting their approach to the vaccination. They go house to house and other LGUs do it at the barangay and sitio levels, even having incentives like raffles to entice the people, including the seniors, to be vaccinated,” she said. (PNA)
