ILOILO – Is the provincial government ready to give incentives to entice individuals to get vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)?
“It’s not very easy. Indi sia doable,” said Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr., citing the province’s two million estimated total population.
The province has to vaccinated 1,448,757, or 70 percent of the total.
According to Defensor, there’s no better incentive than having protection against severe COVID.
Last week, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases said they are studying the provision of vaccination incentives.
They presented to President Rodrigo Duterte suggestions from the private sector.
“Those who are vaccinated are the only ones who will be allowed to get out, to dine in and to travel without restrictions,” vaccine czar Carlito Galvez told Duterte during the latter’s Talk to the People on Tuesday.
The private sector also wants to allow companies “the right not to hire unvaccinated job applicants and requiring RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) tests for existing employees who are not vaccinated at their own expense.”
The suggestions also included “mandatory vaccines for healthcare workers, school employees, public transport workers, civil servants, and members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, and for unrestricted access to public transport, travel, restaurants and tourism establishments.”
As of Oct. 19, data from the Provincial Health Office showed 323,118 Ilonggos or 22 percent of the target population have been fully vaccinated./PN
