The Department of Health (DOH) said Friday that the vaccine confidence of Filipinos increased to nearly 75 percent since the country began its vaccination program against COVID-19.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the data was based on a survey on willingness to get vaccinated, conducted from March 19 to March 30 among an undisclosed number of respondents.
Around 75 percent responded in the affirmative when asked if they would be willing to be vaccinated, Vergeire said.
“Mataas na ‘yung kumpiyansa ng mga kababayan natin sa pagbabakuna compared to the initial which was just at 65 percent,” she said.
(The confidence of our countrymen in vaccines has improved compared to the initial trust figures which was just at 65 percent.)
Around 86 percent of respondents said they believe that COVID-19 vaccines are “safe and efficacious,” Vergeirie said.
“Nakita natin ‘yung pagtaas ng kumpiyansa ng ating mga kababayan noong nakita nilang marami na pong nababakunahan lalong lalo na po na nakita nila na maayos naman ang proseso ng gobyerno,” she said.
(We saw the improvement in vaccine confidence after they saw more people getting vaccinated, and especially after they saw that government processes were good.)
Vaccine confidence of Filipinos improving: DOH
In February, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said only 3 out of 10 Metro Manila residents were willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 due to fear of its side effects.
The government targets to vaccinate at least 50 million people by the end of 2021 to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday additional 2.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility would be delivered before the end of May.
“‘Yung next na delivery ng ating Pfizer (Our next Pfizer delivery), more or less 2.2 million [doses], I was informed yesterday is before the end of the month,” he said during a symbolic vaccination ceremony at the Makati Medical Center.
Authorities are now conducting a test run for the transport of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, he added.
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.