DAVAO CITY – The “incentives” are now on the table.
The city government is giving away prizes, such as gift certificates, in a raffle for the “Bakuna Nights” beginning Friday.
The Bakuna Nights was only recently established in San Roque Central Elementary School in Barrio Obrero to cater to working residents who could not go to vaccination hubs during daytime schedule.
With the backlog on vaccination getting near the half-million mark, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio disclosed that the city would “incentivize” inoculation beginning this month to entice the 438,000 residents who could not go to the centers, or who refuse to get vaccinated.
The City Information Office said “raffling of items is one of the strategies that Mayor Inday Sara Duterte had earlier announced to help encourage more individuals to get vaccinated, help reduce the current backlog, and hit the herd immunity target of 1.2 million for first doses of Covid-19 before the year ends.”
“Vaccinees may win any of the raffled items during the vaccination rollout designed for Dabawenyos 18 years old and above, whether they have scheduled appointments or walk-ins,” it said.
The Bakuna Nights are set at 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Interested recipients must bring their Safe Davao QR, valid identification card or document, and a ball pen.
Aside from the Bakuna Nights, a private group has also established the Bakuna By The Sea, offering its posh hotel ground to cater mostly to the tourism sector workers and members of the Davao City media. Other private groups also organized industry sector inoculation, to increase the daily vaccination rate to 15,000 residents.
In her regular Monday radio program, Duterte-Carpio said, “We have reached the segment of the population who will not go to the vaccine centers, people who do not believe in vaccines, and daily wage earners who think that it’s more important to work than get a vaccine”.
She said suggestions were raised during the Davao Covid-19 Task Force meeting to provide incentives during the first dose rollout for this segment and that it would be piloted in two vaccination centers.
She added that “providing incentives for the first dose vaccination rollout is understandable since the city has reached the point that people will no longer go to vaccination centers since they have to work for their daily needs, they have to take care of the children, or they have no money for fares if the vaccination sites are far from their homes”.
The city government has organized mobile vaccinations to areas identified with a concentration of priority sectors that have not been vaccinated.
As of this week, the city has administered 716,793 first doses and 583,002 second doses.