BOOSTER VACCINE. BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim gets his booster jab in public in this undated photo at his house in Maguindanao to convince other Bangsamoro people it is safe and effective. Dr. Elizabeth Samama, Maguindanao health chief, administered the shot. (Photo courtesy of IPHO-Maguindanao)
COTABATO CITY – The vaccination hesitancy rate in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is diminishing as the vaccination campaign intensifies in all provinces and municipalities.
“At least nagtulungan na iyong mga religious group, iyong mga leaders, political leaders para makumbinsi iyong mga tao. Saka naman kasi nakikita naman nila na wala namang negative effect iyong vaccine (The religious groups [and] political leaders are helping convince our constituents, and people see no negative effects of vaccines),” Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim told #LagingHandaPH program of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) hosted by Undersecretary Rocky Ignacio Wednesday.
“The hesitancy is decreasing here in BARMM,” he said.
The people’s lack of trust in the vaccines as a result of the Dengvaxia controversy has made BARMM health front-liners work harder to convince residents to get inoculated.
“Elders normally refused to get jabs, but now they are coming forward,” Dr. Bashary Latiph, BARMM health minister, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
“We have designed programs like providing incentives and "ayuda" (relief goods) for seniors who remain reluctant to get the vaccines, and it was effective,” Latiph said.
The 67-year-old BARMM chief minister has made public his vaccination administered by Dr. Elizabeth Samama, Maguindanao health chief, to prove to other Bangsamoro people the vaccine is safe and effective.
In the BARMM, the number of infections caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has been steadily decreasing.
As of Tuesday, the BARMM has only seven new infections and a cumulative total of 19,644 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Ebrahim said of these cases, 125 are active which are mostly asymptomatic and mild cases; 18,839 have recovered with a cumulative recovery rate of 95.9 percent, and 680 have so far died since the pandemic was declared in March 2020.
All of the BARMM provinces and cities are currently under Alert Level 2, he said.
Ebrahim said the region targets to immunize some 3.4 million individuals to achieve population protection.
“We have already administered 1.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines,” he said.
Of the total, he said 880,821 have been fully vaccinated, and 62,272 have received their booster doses.
He said the BARMM is doing its best to reach out to its targeted eligible population to soon achieve population immunity.
Ebrahim said long before the national government came up with a “house-to-house” campaign and mobile vaccination program, BARMM health front-liners were already doing it.
“We have started it but our problem is cold storage facilities, hopefully, we can procure more so we can continue the program in more rural areas,” he said.
BARMM comprises the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi; the cities of Cotabato, Marawi and Lamitan, and the 63 villages in six towns of North Cotabato. (PNA)
