Damihan din supply! Joey Salceda: Raffle’s good but easier COVID-19 vax registration is better

By Billy Begas

A solon on Sunday urged the government to make vaccination registration easy and give incentives to individuals who will get vaccinated against COVID-19.

House Committee on Ways and Means chairperson and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said this is better than the raffle being espoused by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)

“The problem is not the lack of some probability of winning a big prize. The problem is for many they have to skip a work day just to get jabbed. For the average wage worker, that will cost them the day’s pay,” Salceda explained.

Early this year, Salceda proposed to the government to give a day’s worth of minimum wage as a vaccine incentive to encourage more people to get vaccinated.

“There are places where that’s being done already, like Davao City,” Salceda said. “The point is, you compensate for the trouble. Even with a raffle, for many working class Filipinos, foregoing a day’s wages is too much.”

Meanwhile, Salceda underscored the need to increase the vaccine supplies in other regions like Bicol.

“Region-wide, we are just at 10 percent of the population vaccinated. That’s among the lowest in the country. We need help,” Salceda added.

Salceda said the lack of vaccines could threaten the strength of the region’s COVID-19 response.

“Look at the example of Vietnam. They were among the best in the world for minimum health standards and non-pharmaceutical interventions. They are now facing among the world’s worst surges because of a lack of vaccines, not because of neglect on the part of their government,” Salceda warned.

He stressed the need to get more vaccines in regions that are under vaccinated “because here, we are aching for vaccines.”

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)