Only 28% of target recipients in San Juan City registered for COVID-19 vaccination so far — Zamora

San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora on Monday said only 28% percent of the target recipients of COVID-19 vaccines in the city have registered for inoculation so far.

With this percentage, Zamora said the Department of Health (DOH) informed the local government that San Juan City now has the highest number of registrants for the vaccination rollout in Metro Manila.

“As of today we have 24,559 registrants already. We were informed by the DOH that we are now ranked number 1 in Metro Manila in terms of the number of registrants,” he said in an interview on ANC.

“We are targeting around 85,400 people. We're at 28.76% already,” he added.

The total population of the city is around 112,000. To reach herd immunity, Zamora said the local government will vaccinate 70% of the population or around 85,400 residents.

He expressed optimism that the number of registrants will increase once the vaccination rollout starts. He said he is willing to take the first COVID-19 vaccine shot in the city to boost the trust of his constituents with the vaccination.

The local government will use funds from the P150-million budget allocated for medical assistance for the indemnification of vaccine recipients in case they experience serious side effects.

On Sunday, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the biggest challenge for local governments in the COVID-19 inoculation drive is the low demand among their residents.

Earlier, Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian said the city's online registration traffic for COVID-19 vaccination was sluggish.

In Quezon City, meanwhile, Mayor Joy Belmonte said only 37,899 out of 74,793 residents who answered a survey said they were willing to be vaccinated. According to her, 10,819 residents refused to get vaccinated while 26,725 said they were undecided.

Health experts earlier said that Filipinos’ trust and confidence in vaccines may be the next challenge in the COVID-19 pandemic. — RSJ, GMA News