There has been a noted low turnout of senior citizens and persons with comorbidities at COVID-19 vaccination sites across Bohol due to “hesitancy,” a provincial government official said Friday.

Provincial Health Office chief Dr. Yul Lopez, during the Capitol’s weekly press briefing on Friday, reported that only 30,000 of the target 110,592 senior citizens have received their first dose of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, 14,000 of the 31,927 target persons with comorbidities have been inoculated.

“Ubos ni siya…Nakita nato ang hesitancy gihapon niining duha ka sector,” said Lopez.

Since March this year, Bohol has received a total of 230,080 vaccine doses. Except for 50,000 shots of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, all jabs in the province’s vaccine inventory require two doses.

A total of 146,690 doses have been used to inoculate persons under the A1 to A4 categories as of July 28, 2021.

According to Lopez, the Bohol Medical Society and Philippine College of Physicians – Bohol, are set to launch a massive information drive in municipalities to urge locals to have themselves vaccinated against the respiratory disease.

Both groups are set to convene their officials next week to discuss the initiative.

“Nalipay kita na karong Lunes magtigom kami sa mga kadagkuan sa Bohol Medical Society and Philippine College of Physicians, didto sa atong buhatan sa PHO kay aduna silay dalaygon kaayo na boluntaryo na mo tuyok sa mga kalungsoran,” Lopez said.

The PHO, for its part, listed municipalities that have been noted to have hesitant residents and low turnouts.

Governor Art Yap earlier directed health authorities to ramp up vaccination efforts in a bid to contain the spread of the dreaded Delta variant if it reaches the province.

Bohol however is solely reliant on vaccine allocations from the national government.

As of Thursday, 32 Delta variant cases have been detected in Central Visayas but none of these were from Bohol.