SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique—Barangay (village) captains in the province of Antique will assist in the house-to-house campaign to encourage the elderly to avail themselves of the Covid-19 vaccine and complete the vaccination of Antique’s 95,035 target senior citizens.
Antique Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao, in an interview Wednesday, said she had requested the help of Liga ng Barangay (LnB) President Pamela Socorro Azucena and the other barangay captains in the province to conduct house-to-house campaign for more seniors to get vaccinated.
“The barangay captains know better the senior citizens in their barangays,” she said.
She said that through their help, the elders might be convinced to avail of the vaccination because of their trust and confidence on them.
The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) and Municipal Health Office (MHO) vaccination teams have difficulty in encouraging the seniors to have the Covid-19 vaccination because of health reasons, she added.
“I was told by the vaccination teams that there were seniors who would hide or if not scold them if they try to encourage them to get vaccinated,” she said.
The low turnout in the vaccination for the elderly is preventing the province from being classified under Alert Level 1, the governor added.
Data from the IPHO showed that as of March 20, of the 95,035 target senior citizens in Antique, only 59 percent or 30,954 elderly have availed themselves of their first dose and 29,524 or 57 percent submitted to second dose.
“With the help of the barangay captains, we hope that within the next two weeks we could increase the Covid-19 vaccination among the elderlies so that we could go down to Alert Level 1,” she said.
She said there could be no full economic recovery in the province if it remains under its current Alert Level 2 classification.
Meanwhile, local government units (LGUs) in Antique were urged on Tuesday to strengthen their advocacy on Covid-19 vaccination focusing on senior citizens due to the sector’s low turnout during the National Vaccination Days (NVD) Part 4.
For the March 10-12 NVD, only 64 senior citizens got the vaccine out of the 4,620 recipients, said Irene Dulduco, IPHO information officer.
“Many seniors still are hesitant to undergo the Covid-19 vaccination because of their comorbidity,” she said, plus they tend to believe wrong information that the vaccines will worsen their condition.
These 64 seniors were from 13 out of the 18 towns of Antique, namely, Barbaza, Tobias Fornier, Patnongon, Sibalom, Valderrama, Laua-an, Hamtic, Bugasong, Anini-y, Tibiao, San Jose de Buenavista, Culasi, and San Remigio.
“The seniors, who were attended to by the IPHO deployed teams, were also given options on what Covid-19 vaccines they would like to have such as Pfizer, Moderna, and many others that were then available for them,” Dulduco said.
She added that as of March 14, a total of 30,792 seniors are already vaccinated while 21,933 are unprotected.
Dulduco said that if only local health authorities could reach out to them and explain the benefit of being inoculated, then more seniors would be encouraged to be vaccinated. PNA
Image credits: PNA Antique IPHO