San Miguel mayor Virglio Mendez expressed his frustration about the vaccine hesitancy particularly among the senior citizen residents of the said town.
Mendez expressed his frustration in a radio interview over Open Forum on Sept. 2, 2021 hosted by Ardy Araneta-Batoy and Dave Albarado.
Mendez said there are people in his town, particularly the senior citizens, who are hesitant in getting the jab.
The mayor bared that these people hesitate because they got influenced by fake news and wrong information about vaccines.
The mayor said there have been five people who died due to Coronavirus disease (Covid) since the start of the pandemic and none of them was vaccinated.
There are also unvaccinated Covid patients in the town whose condition got worse after getting infected as they were unable to get inoculated, the mayor adds.
“Dili jud sila gusto magpabakuna tungod ani ilang mga misconception nga mahimo silang zombie ,” the mayor said when asked why some residents of San Miguel are hesitant to get vaccinated.
The mayor has been pushing to inoculate as many residents as the LGU could, as the town is among the localities with most Covid active cases.
The town has, as of Sept. 3, 2021, 90 active cases with 17 out of. 18 barangays with at least 1 active case, the mayor revealed.
Thus, Mendez said they have been finding ways to entice the residents to get vaccinated but still vaccine hesitancy remains high.
Meanwhile,Mendez revealed that the 77-year-old male farmer who tested positive for the Delta variant of Covid died on July 18, 2021.
San Miguel is among the localities that logged in at least 1 case of Delta variant based on the report released by the Philippine Genome Center on Aug. 27, 2021. The other localities with new Delta variant cases are Tagbilaran, Baclayon and Loboc.