MANILA, Philippines — Majority of Quezon City residents who applied for the QCitizen ID are willing to be inoculated with the coronavirus vaccine, the city government said Wednesday.
In a statement sent to reporters, City Administrator Michael Alimurung said that of the more than 44,000 applicants so far for the QC ID, 57.6% replied “yes” to the question, “would you be willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19?” that was included in the application.
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Meanwhile, only 9.1% of applicants said they felt reluctant to be inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine while 33.3% were still undecided.
Of the undecided, most of are having second thoughts about the side effects while others would base their final decision on what brand of vaccine would be used by the city government.
“Many of those who refused to be injected are worried about the efficacy and safety of the vaccine while others have health issues such as allergies,” said Alimurung.
“Others said that they want to ensure the safety and effectivity of the vaccines before they decide on the matter,” he also said.
The statement released by the city information office added that the city government "is scheduled to go down to the barangays for the manual application for the QC ID, where they will also ask residents about their view regarding the COVID-19 vaccines."
LGU assures residents of 'safest, most effective' jabs
To recall, Mayor Joy Belmonte is among the local chief executives in and around Metro Manila who have signed tripartite agreements with British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and the national government to procure COVID-19 vaccines, while others have entered talks with other vaccine manufacturers.
Other figures on vaccine confidence in the country have not been as optimistic.
In early January, survey results released by Pulse Asia suggested that nearly a majority of Filipinos have said that they were not willing to get vaccinated for the coronavirus with 84% saying they were unsure of its safety.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. at the time asserted that in 2021 alone, the national government was looking at inoculating 50 to 70 million Filipinos with 148 million doses of the vaccine.
“We assure the QC public that we will buy only the safest and most effective vaccines,” Belmonte also said, adding that only vaccines which passed all standards and have complied with requirements from stringent regulatory authorities here and abroad will be purchased.
— with a report from Christian Deiparine
Disclosure: Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which operates digital news outlet Philstar.com. This article was produced following editorial guidelines.