Mandaue City to tap barangay leaders to boost vaccination drive

One of Mandaue City’s frontliners gets a vaccine shot in one of the city’s vaccination centers in this March 2021 photo. | CDN Digital file photo

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Mandaue City will be tapping community leaders in each barangay to help encourage their constituents to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

City Councilor Marie Immaline Cortes-Zafra, the vice-chairman of the committee on health, said it is important to make the people understand the importance of the vaccine, and community leaders can really help as some people find an assurance when something is endorsed by those they know and trust.

Zafra said there are still people who are scared of getting vaccinated and believed that once the public will fully understand the purpose and importance of the vaccination, they will be encouraged to get themselves vaccinated.

She said community leaders will be helped by the City Health Office, Department of Health, and the Barangays.

Zafra said it is just normal that vaccines will have side effects and that would mean that the vaccine is really working.

Earlier, lawyer Lizer Malate, head of the Mandaue City Vaccination Operations Center, said that since the start of the implementation of the city’s full-blown vaccination registration last week, there were individuals mostly indigents, who were scared and had refused to be included in the master list.

Malate also revealed that they will be strengthening their campaign for COVID-19 vaccines at the end of the full-blown registration on July 1.

The city has a population of 422,000, with 295,000 to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

The city has already vaccinated about 47,000 individuals.    /rcg