MALACAÑANG yesterday urged fully vaccinated individuals to get their booster shots to increase their protection against severe or critical COVID-19 or death.
Cabinet Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles issued the statement amid the circulation of an old video clip of President Duterte where he is seen saying that two shots are enough to fight the virus.
Nograles said the video was taken back on Sept. 30 2021 when booster shots have not been approved or administered, and it is being used by unscrupulous groups for their anti-booster drive.
“At that point, 21 million of our countrymen were fully vaccinated, and our priority was to increase this number, which is why the provision of booster shots had yet to be approved.The situation today is now vastly different,” he said.
Nograles noted booster shots were approved in November, initially for fully vaccinated health workers and persons who are immunocompromised. It was later approved for elders and persons with comorbidities and eventually for frontliners and the rest of the population as ample supply of vaccines have arrived.
On Dec. 21, 2021, the President publicly asked Filipinos to get booster shots. This month, Nograles said, the President revealed he has received his booster shot.
Nograles urged the public to be more discerning of the information they receive.
“We reiterate that there is clear evidence that COVID-19 booster shots provide additional protection against the virus, and urge the public to refrain from sharing disinformation that will endanger the lives of our kababayan, compromise our efforts to contain COVID-19, and undermine our campaign to beat the disease,” he also said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also pushed for booster shots.
“The evidence is clear that booster doses are important in maintaining protection against severe and critical COVID cases and, therefore, avoid hospitalization and death,” he said.
“Therefore, to those already fully vaccinated, go out and get booster shots.”
On a second booster shot, Duque said, “There has been no clear evidence yet on the importance of second booster or fourth jab. Our Vaccine Experts Panel is still doing its assessment.”
The National Vaccine Operations Center said that as of January 23, about 123.365 million doses have been administered, including 6.298 million as booster shots. More than 59.799 million individuals have received their first shot while 57.268 million are now fully vaccinated.
The government targets to fully vaccinate 77 million individuals by the end of March and 90 million by the end of June.
The country has received about 213.68 million doses of vaccines since February last year.
More vaccines including 15 million pediatric vaccines are expected to be delivered within the first half of the year. — With Gerard Naval
