Vaccine hesitancy among adult Filipinos dropped to five percent nationwide, the independent pandemic monitor OCTA Research Group said.
OCTA’s fourth quarter Tugon ng Masa survey showed that vaccine hesitancy dipped from 22 percent in Sept. 2021 to five percent in January this year.
This means that vaccine confidence in the Philippines is increasing, with 95 percent of adult Filipinos willing to take the vaccine against COVID-19.
The same survey showed that only two percent of the fully vaccinated contracted the virus.
However, Visayas and Mindanao remain the most vaccine-hesitant regions in the country where nine percent of folks from the said groups of islands stay skeptical of the immunization.
This is not to take away from the fact that hesitancy in the region has also decreased in comparison to the previous quarter.
In Sept. 2021, 31 percent of respondents in Visayas and 19 percent in Mindanao said they will not get vaccinated, a far cry from the fourth quarter’s nine percent.
Among the vaccine hesitant nationwide, 94 percent are concerned about the safety of the vaccines while 12 percent say they do not need the vaccines to fight COVID-19.
OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David cites the increase in vaccine confidence and the continued vaccine rollout in the country as the primary reasons why cases are at a downtrend after a sudden peak in cases following the entry of the Omicron variant in the country.
“We could imagine that the worst is probably over for most of the country because cases have peaked or peaking,” Dr. David said in a forum on Monday, citing the downward trend of cases in Cebu and Davao City.
The Department of Health (DOH) COVID indicators showed positive developments in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus as the NCR and its neighboring provinces including Cavite Laguna, and Rizal have improved from high-risk levels to moderate risk levels in a matter of days.
Batangas and Quezon, however, remain at high risk levels.
Dr. David said that the Philippines has a significant amount of vaccinations and he remains hopeful that the pandemic situation in the country would transition to the “endemic stage.”
This refers to the approach of “living with the virus” instead of eradicating it completely, eventually allowing businesses to open and no longer warranting Filipinos to wear masks.
He also notes that the COVID situation in the country has become “milder.”
“We're not testing as much because (the) COVID has become milder but again, we’d like to remind that it's mild now, we're seeing mild cases mainly because of the high level of vaccination that we have in the NCR and other urbanized cities. But there are still provinces in the country with low vaccine coverage and I think that's one aspect that we still need to improve significantly on as we exit the pandemic,” he said.
“My take on this is that we are exiting the pandemic but we will be doing it gradually, we will not be rushing,” he added.
Metro Manila, Batanes, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Biliran, Southern Leyte, and Basilan will be placed under Alert Level 2 starting Feb. 1 due to the declining number of cases.
By Zeus Legaspi
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