Vaccine hesitancy still an issue for Lapu seniors 

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu—Vaccine hesitancy remains to be one of the reasons why some senior citizens here refuse to be inoculated.

This was what Lawyer James Allan Sayson, the vaccine czar of Lapu-Lapu City, said as the city remains to have a low turnout of senior citizens inoculated with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine.

According Sayson, only 57 percent of senior citizens in the city have been inoculated, while they are targetting to vaccinate 70 percent to 80 percent of its population.

Sayson revealed that vaccine hesitancy is still one of the reasons why some senior citizens refuse to be inoculated.

With this, Sayson said that they are now coordinating with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to set a quota for barangays, especially those with a low turnout of senior citizens vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine.

“So we called Jonah (Pino, head of DILG Lapu-Lapu City) because she promised she will set a quota for barangay captains. Those who can’t meet their quota will be  issued show-cause-orders,” Sayson said.

Sayson added that they also requested 11,000 Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccines even as some seniors  prefer a certain brand.

J&J vaccine only needs to be inoculated once for a person to be considered fully vaccinated.

“Some prefer Pfizer. We don’t have a problem with that because we will give any brand of vaccine. But we requested 11,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson for senior citizens because J&J vaccines need only to be jabbed once. That way, seniors won’t have to keep coming back to vaccination sites and that means lesser exposure,” he added.

/bmjo

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