Pinunto ng independent research group na OCTA ang “significant” vaccine hesitancy laban sa coronavirus disease sa Visayas at Mindanao; kung hindi ito matutugunan ay maaaring bawiin ang mga natamo nang tagumpay ng vaccination program.
“When we surveyed vaccine coverage and confidence, what we saw was that, based on the data, there’s significant vaccine hesitancy in parts of Visayas and Mindanao regions, especially in the rural areas and especially in socio-economic classes D and E,” sabi ni OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David sa isang panayam sa ANC nitong Miyerkules, Oktubre 27.
“I think that’s where we need to focus our messaging that vaccines are safe because some of these people believe that vaccines are not safe,”dagdag ni David.
Maliban sa pagsunod sa minimum public health protocols, binanggit ni Davit ang kahalagahan ng pagbabakuna upang mapanatili ang downward trend ng COVID-19 cases sa bansa.
Empleyadong lasing, patay matapos sapakin ng ginising na katrabaho
“We still need testing, we still need to vaccinate more people. Although the coverage in the NCR (National Capital Region) is very high already, I think we’re almost at 8 million people vaccinated in the NCR, the coverage in provinces is not yet that high. We still need to address these concerns,” sabi nito.
“It’s not just a supply issue, based on our surveys, there is a significant hesitancy in many provinces outside the NCR. We need to address these concerns because vaccination is important moving forward. Even though we have contained the pandemic, the threats are still there. If we vaccinate more people the threats will be lessened,”dagdag ng eksperto.
Sa kanyang update sa Twitter nitong Miyerkules, pinunto ni David na bumaba ng hanggang 4,848 ang daily average ng bagong COVID-19 cases nitong Oktubre 20-26.
“The last time cases were this low was on March 12 to 18,”ani David.
Nasa 0.52 naman an kasalukuyang rate of virus transmission ng bansa.
“In order to sustain the lower trends, we still have to follow protocols, we still have to follow the measures that are in place,” sabi ni David.
Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz
