Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Monday called on the city’s elderly population to be vaccinated for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to protect themselves against the virus.

No more than 30 percent of Quezon City’s estimated 300,000 senior citizens have been vaccinated so far.

“I encourage our fathers, mothers, uncles, and aunts, all our senior citizens to get vaccinated. Our Vax to Normal data show that we have vaccinated only about 91,814 of our senior citizens,” she said in Filipino.

Belmonte said they have come up with strategies to encourage senior citizens to get jabbed, like dedicated registration venues, home service for the immobile, and information drive that all vaccines passed the Food and Drugs Administration and World Health Organization standards.

She also advised her constituents to return for the second dose to complete their protection.

She said others have valid reasons for not coming back or delaying receipt of the second dose, like getting sick or being in lockdown areas, but she said it’s alarming that others think one dose is enough.

“Our target of population protection will be worthless if we will not be able to vaccinate 80 percent of our population aged 18 and above,” she said in Filipino.

QC’s latest data showed 333,773 have received the first dose, or almost 20 percent of the target 1.7 million, while 97,772 are already fully protected.