60 pct of Filipinos must get COVID-19 shots, DOST says as surveys bare vaccine hesitancy

Video courtesy of PTV

About 3 in 5 Filipinos should be inoculated against the novel coronavirus, the Department of Science and Technology said on Friday, even as recent surveys revealed that most respondents shun receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

Only 1 in 4 Manila residents are willing to take the vaccines, according to a survey by the OCTA research group, while nearly half of Filipinos polled by Pulse Asia are hesitant to get inoculated.

"Para tayo'y magkaroon ng mataas na confidence na hindi na kakalat [ang COVID-19] e magkaroon ng herd community," said DOST Secretary Fortunato Dela Peña.

"Ayon sa sinasabi sa amin ng mga nakakaalam ay maganda sana kung at least 60 percent ng ating populasyon ay mabakunahan," he said in a public briefing.

(For us to have high confidence that COVID-19 will not spread, there should be herd immunity. According to what experts told us, at least 60 percent of our population should be vaccinated.)

Watch part of the briefing here.