MANILA, Philippines — Health authorities in the country are not recommending COVID-19 booster shots at this time, citing the lack of data on their benefits and the limited supply of jabs.
Officials from the Department of Health and experts working for the government are waiting for enough evidence on the need for booster doses to combat variants of the coronavirus.
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And there is a need to protect the most vulnerable first, health officials stressed.
“We have to vaccinate the priority groups first. Let’s get them to the highest possible coverage, at least 90 to 95% for A2 (senior citizens). And while we haven’t reached those figures yet, the talk about booster doses has no place at this point,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel Monday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also stressed the need to ensure that Filipinos have equitable access to vaccines.
“If we give booster doses, that will remove some of the doses that are supposed to be given to people who have not yet received first dose,” Vergeire said partly in Filipino.
“With the [presence] of Delta variant, our objective is to vaccinate as much as how many that we can do in a day, among our adult population. We want to inoculate those who are still unvaccinated and enhance the protection among our population,” she added.
Last week, the World Health Organization called for a moratorium on booster shots until at least the end of September to address the drastic inequity in distribution of jabs between wealthy and poor nations.
Over 11 million Filipinos have completed their COVID-19 vaccination, data from the government showed. Meanwhile, more than 13 million people have received partial protection. — Gaea Katreena Cabico