Business owners in Quezon City are making their own contributions to encourage Filipinos to get vaccinated against the 2019 coronavirus disease, reportedly by offering discounts for goods and services for inocuated customers.

Quezon City 2nd District Rep. Precious Hipolito-Castelo disclosed that many food and service shops in a mall in the city have joined her and her husband, Councilor Winston Castelo, in implementing the Bakuna Diswento promotion.

Hipolito-Castelo said participating businesses in the project offer five to ten percent discounts to vaccinated patrons. Others give out free drinks.

“It’s our way of encouraging our people to get themselves vaccinated and protected against the highly infectious new coronavirus and the deadly Covid-19 illness it is causing,” the lady solon said.

The Castelo couple urged other shopping malls to join the Bakuna Diskwento drive to convince more city residents to get themselves protected against the COVID-19 via vaccination.

“Making this a city-wide undertaking would entice more residents to get vaccine protection,” Rep. Castelo said.

She said the latest data showed that about 34 percent of the city’s target of 1.7 million residents have been inoculated.

City officials blamed poor internet registration service as among the reasons for the slow vaccination progress.

“We still have a long way to go, so we should leave no stone unturned in encouraging our people to take their vaccine,” she said.

At the same time, she urged city vaccinators to take extra care in administering the vaccine to avoid breaching protocols.

“Breaches and mistakes will just delay our vaccination program. We might as well have a slow-but-sure mindset,” she said.