MANILA, Philippines — Health workers fully vaccinated for COVID-19 can begin getting booster shots starting November 17, the Department of Health announced Monday night.
The agency's pronouncement came as it said the Food and Drug Administration had issued an emergency use authorization for the booster doses.
Related Stories
Authorities approved last month a government panel's recommendation to administer the shots by end of this year.
DOH in a statement said it recommends using Moderna, Pfizer, and Sinovac as booster doses "regardless of the brand used for the primary series."
"Sinovac will also be offered as a booster for those that had Sinovac as primary series," it added.
Officials said final guidelines for the efforts would be released by the National Vaccine Operations Center later today.
The Philippines began its inoculation drive in March, then struggling with issues on supply of the jabs, vaccine hesitancy, and twice a resurgence in coronavirus cases.
Eight months later, some 31.57 million have since completed their COVID-19 shots.
That translates to 40.93% of the government's target of inoculating 77.13 million this year.
Some 38.14 million or 49.45% have received a first dose. This month, officials are targeting to ramp up daily vaccinations to a million to 1.5 million doses administered per day. — Christian Deiparine