Covid vax for elderly in Central Visayas remains low

CEBU CITY – The Central Visayas region ranks second in the country that recorded the lowest number of senior citizens vaccinated against the Covid-19, next to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Citing data from the National Vaccination Operations Center, the DOH said Central Visayas only vaccinated about 52% of the target coverage out of the 589,773 total population of the elderly while while BARMM achieved about 44%.

DOH-7 spokeswoman and chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said Central Visayas still has 327,707 senior citizens who remain unvaccinated. “The problem with our population is that senior citizens 60 years old and above, especially those who are residing in the remote places are not coming downtown or visiting malls, or they are living in far-away houses. It’s really difficult to convince them to be vaccinated,” Loreche said.

She said local governments are also doubling their efforts to reach out to the elderly who are in far-flung areas just to administer the vaccine to them.

Loreche also cited the “purok” system implemented by the Department of the Interior and Local Government that has helped a lot in reaching out to the senior citizens down to the sub-villages for inoculation. “Hopefully in doing this, there is no more reason whatsoever we failed to reach them out. By chance they would categorically refuse to get vaccinated, then we need to respect that because at the end of the day, inoculation is a voluntary act,” she said.

Despite the low achievement in terms of the number of elderly in Central Visayas who submitted themselves for inoculation, Loreche said she is optimistic more senior citizens will avail of the free vaccination. (John Rey Saavedra)