‘They may be slow but at least, we now see that government officials are pushing the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic a few inches forward every day. For our own common good, this effort should deserve the people’s cooperation and support.’
SOON, the government will start vaccinating for the third time health frontliners, senior citizen, and individuals who are immunocompromised.
Called booster jabs, these vaccine doses against COVID-19 will further strengthen one’s resistance against the dreaded coronavirus 2019. The rollout for these boosters is planned for November 15 for an initial 15 million doses, it was announced earlier by vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, also chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
He added that as usual, priority in the rollout of the first phase of boosters are the health workers. This rollout, however, will not be undertaken without guidance from the policy team, the revised emergency use authorization of vaccines that would be used, and the recommendation of experts advising the World Health Organization (WHO).
One reason why some officials are doubtful about the rollout of booster shots is that there is a need to ensure that the general population has enough vaccine supply to be used for persons still not inoculated as of today.
To this concern, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje gave the assurance that the country’s vaccine supply is enough to accommodate the rollout of additional and booster shots.
The government has 129 million vaccines in its inventory, of which more than 87 million jabs had been deployed nationwide.
Secretary Galvez’ slide presentation showed that some 1.5 million health workers and 4.6 million senior citizens have completed their coronavirus inoculation. Around 7.4 million persons with comorbidities have been fully vaccinated, too.
At least 27.4 million of the 109 million population have been fully inoculated so far, Galvez reported. The government also intends to give full vaccination to 90 percent of teachers, students, and school personnel; half of the target population in priority areas like Calabarzon and Central Luzon; and 70 percent of senior citizens.
They may be slow but at least, we now see that government officials are pushing the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic a few inches forward every day. For our own common good, this effort should deserve the people’s cooperation and support.
