The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said special vaccinations will be held in Cebu on March 20-31 and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on March 30-April 1, to address the low vaccination coverage in these areas.
This was announced by Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire during a press briefing in Malacanang.
She said the events are called Bayanihan Bakunahan or Special Focus Vaccination.
The DOH said the government is looking at providing some form of assistance or “ayuda” in exchange for residents getting vaccinated against COVID-19 in BARMM.
The DOH identified five challenges in the vaccination rollout in the region such as vaccine hesitancy or preference, limited manpower, fake news, late submission of daily vaccination reports, and lukewarm support from local chief executives and barangay local government units (BLGUs).
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier expressed concern that some communities in Mindanao are resisting the COVID-19 vaccine due to the belief that their culture and religion do not allow them to be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said COVID-19 infections in the country continue to decline following the Omicron surge last January.
Vergeire said they recorded an average of 454 new COVID-19 cases per day, which is lower than the 490 cases recorded per day in December last year.
The number of COVID-19 cases in our country has dropped by 15 percent since last week. Currently, it is estimated that we have 454 new cases per day, which is a little lower compared to when we started last December with 490 cases per day. This is before we were hit by the Omicron variant,” she said.
The national hospital admissions, on the other hand, have also declined by 75 percent while total bed utilization also remains at “low risk.”
Our national admissions also dropped by 75 percent from a peak of 5,218 admissions in January. We can see that it has been plateauing in recent days,” she said.
“We remain at ‘low risk’ with total bed utilization at 17 percent The number of individuals admitted to the ICU has also decreased and is now at only 575 admissions.,” she said.