Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes says that there are other ways to encourage Mandauehanons to get vaccinated aside from implementing a “Bakuna Bubble.” | Mary Rose Sagarino
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The Mandaue City government is not keen on implementing a ‘Bakuna Bubble’ in the city.
City Councilor Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, chairman of the comittee on health, said that they talked with other city councilors about requiring individuals to present a vaccination card before entering some of the establishments in the city but they still would need to discuss it to Mayor Jonas Cortes.
“Nindot unta but kinahanglan pa namo idiscuss with Mayor. Ato respetahan sad ang katungod sa nagpabakuna kay proven na man gyud. Scientifically nakita man gyud nga ang bakuna makaprevent sa ( to experience severe symptoms of the) virus,” said Ruiz.
(This is nice but we need to discuss this with the mayor. We will respect the rights of those who got vaccinated because it is already proven. Scientifically, we saw that the vaccine can prevent the virus.)
Cortes, on the other hand, said that he was not keen on implementing it or the ‘Bakuna Bubble’ as there were residents who had comorbidities or illnesses that would prevent them to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Cortes said that whether vaccinated or not vaccinated, they were still city’s residents.
“We should be extra careful kani’ng ato’ng (decision). We can find solutions dili kay mao ray ato tugtan kana lang bakunado. Naay mga incentives nga ato’ng mahatag aron ma encourage atong fellow Mandauehanons nga magpabakuna,” said Cortes.
(We should be extra careful in making our (decision). We can find solutions. Not that that only the vaccinated will be allowed. We have incentives that we can give to encourage our fellow Mandauehanons to get vaccinated.)
The mayor said there were a lot of ways to encourage residents to get inoculated.
With this, Cortes is asking residents to do their part and get vaccinated.
Earlier, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion proposed ‘Bakuna Bubble’ that would make some services exclusive to vaccinated individuals in hopes of avoiding a stricter quarantine status and reviving the economy.
Subangdaku Barangay Captain Ernie Manatad, Association of Barangay Councils Mandaue president and Mandaue City Vaccine Board Chairman, said that currently the number of vacinees everyday in the city had decreased.
Including the Project Balik Buhay vaccination, Manatad said, they could only now vaccinate about 3,000 to 4,000 individuals, a bit lesser to the 4,000 to 5,000 vacinees last July and August.
Manatad said that the possible reason could be because there were still a lot of residents who had doubts of the vaccine.
Despite this, Mandaue City still continue to rank first against other local government units for the highest number of vaccinated eligible population, according to data from the Project Balik Buhay.
Manatad said as of September 16, the city had vaccinated 318,401 individuals —138,396 of whom were fully vaccinated while the remaining 180,005 individuals had received their first dose of the vaccine.
To achieve herd immunity the city should fully vaccinate at least 295,000 individuals.
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