A sleepy farming town in Pampanga will raffle off cows to residents who got vaccinated against COVID-19, said its mayor who thought of a practical way to beat vaccine hesitancy.
From free turon or fried bananas to a complimentary upsize on designer coffee, businessmen in the Philippines are helping the government encourage Filipinos to get jabbed. Racing to achieve herd immunity with a target vaccination of 50 million people by year-end, just one million have been fully immunized using the total four million shots delivered.
San Luis Mayor Jayson Sagum said the raffle would start in July, when bulk of the vaccines are expected to arrive. One cow will be raffled off every month until July 2022, he said.
"Kasi malaki yung vaccine hesitancy ng mga Filipinos, sa mga kababayan natin," Sagum told DZMM. San Luis has a population of roughly 50,000 according to government data and is around 53 kilometers north of Manila.
In a Facebook post, the San Luis local government unit said all residents of the town are welcome to join and should only bring proof that they have received at least one dose of the vaccine to the mayor's office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.
Sponsors for cows to be raffled off are also welcome, it said.
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