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Philippines cheers bishops' offer to help allay COVID-19 vaccine fears

Published 01/31/2021, 12:18 PM
Updated 01/31/2021, 12:20 PM
© Reuters

MANILA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Philippines' health ministry
on Sunday welcomed the offer of the country's group of Catholic
bishops to help in the coronavirus vaccination drive of the
government, which is struggling to persuade many Filipinos to
get the shots.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)
has offered to transform church facilities in the country into
COVID-19 vaccination sites, and said its members were also
willing to get vaccinated in public to help build confidence in
the campaign.
"We are happy with the CBCP's offer," Health Secretary
Francisco Duque said in a statement. "Churches really can be
alternative sites to areas that lack facility, especially those
in hard-to-reach municipalities."
The health ministry has acknowledged they face an uphill
struggle to persuade many people to take the vaccine shots, on
top of the logistical difficulties in reaching 2,000 inhabited
islands with precarious health systems. "We can offer our church facilities to help in this massive
and complicated and very challenging programme of vaccination,"
Archbishop Romulo Valles, CBCP president, was quoted as saying
on Thursday by the official news service of the CBCP Media
Office.
The Southeast Asian country, among the world's laggards in
its vaccination rollout, aims to start immunisations next month.
It has the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in the region with
more than half a million infections and over 10,000 deaths.
The church remains influential in the Catholic-majority
country, although its relationship with the current
administration has not been as cordial as with previous
leaderships.
President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly lambasted the
church, which had criticised him over his bloody war on drugs.

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