THE Department of Health (DOH) yesterday said it will push its plan to redefine “fully vaccinated” by including booster shots for COVID-19.
“For fully vaccinated status, we would want the definition to be the first two doses and a booster shot, Health Undersecretary and DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press conference.
“People can’t go to public places or enter restaurants if they don’t have fully vaccinated status. That’s is what we are looking to implement,” she added.
Vergeire said the DOH will make the proposal as soon as the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is “reconvened,” and then make recommendations to President Marcos Jr.
Vergeire made the statements days after she said the DOH targets to administer around 23 million first booster shots in the first 100 days of the Marcos government.
When added to the current 15.7 million boosted population, there will be around 39 million Filipinos with up-to-date vaccination.
As of July 17, about 65.34 million individuals have been fully vaccinated, or have received two doses, while about 49.7 million are due for boosters. Only about 15.59 million individuals have received booster shots.
Vergeire said aside from incentivizing and disincentivizing booster shots, government will continue to bring the vaccination program closer to the people.
This, she said, means there will be vaccination operations in markets, places of worship, malls, transport terminals, offices, factories, plazas, or schools.
Vergeire said home visits or house-to-house vaccination for senior citizens will also be implemented.
“The DOH will make vaccines more accessible and available,” she said.
SECOND BOOSTER
The DOH remains cold to calls to administer second booster shots to the general population.
“For the general population, until now, there is sparse data that will show enough evidence saying we should give this to the general population,” she said.
She said the DOH is not inclined to adopt policies that are not based on scientific data.
“The government will always base our decisions on science and evidence. That is what we have been doing right from the beginning,” she said.
On Tuesday, former presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion urged the government to allow second booster shots for the general population, with 1.5 million vaccine doses bought by the private sector already set to expire by the end of the month.
Sen. Francis Escudero yesterday said the government should ease restrictions on vaccination so it can make use of the 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines worth more than P1 billion.
Aside from this, Escudero said the national government can donate the vaccines to local government units with a high number of COVID cases and “with high absorptive capacity to do the jabs.”
He said the government can also identify the vulnerable sectors which need vaccinations or booster shots so they can be organized and be given priority, and give incentives to people who will be vaccinated or given booster shots.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said the government can use the mass media to launch its campaign to convince more people to get jabbed.
“Persuasion. Not forcing them,” he said. — With Raymond Africa
