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Fully-vaccinated in healthcare may get booster shots

All fully-vaccinated healthcare workers may avail of booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine starting Wednesday, Nov. 17, the Department of Health said in an advisory Monday.

“Based on the Emergency Use Authorization issued by the Food and Drug Authority, the DOH recommends using either Moderna, Pfizer, and Sinovac as booster doses regardless of the brand used for the primary series,” the DOH said.

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Sinovac will also be offered as a booster for those that had Sinovac as primary series, the Health department added, noting guidelines will be released today by the National Vaccine Operations Center.

Meanwhile, National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr. said the vaccination days set on Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 will be declared as working holidays.

Galvez said during this nationwide activity, the government aims to administer 15 million jabs.

Galvez said the National Vaccination Days will set the momentum for the administration of millions of COVID-19 jabs daily until the end of the year and enable the national government to achieve its target of fully inoculating at least 54 million Filipinos. 

Glavez said the primary objective is to provide vaccinations to regions with low vaccination outputs, such as the BARMM and other regions so “that they could immediately catch up. We will have that momentum going forward until December 30.”

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III emphasized the need to ramp up demand generation for COVID-19 vaccines, especially in rural areas before the start of the heightened mass vaccination which begins at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines was scheduled to arrive Monday evening, according to the Manila International Airport Authority.

A total of 1,353,800 doses of government-procured Moderna vaccines will be arriving at Manila airport terminal 1 via China Airlines flight CI-703.

The country’s national vaccination program continues to gain momentum, as the country’s daily vaccination rate breached the one million mark twice within the month. To date, a total of 123,258,340 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the Philippines since February.

More than 31.5 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated as of November 15, as the government eyed ramping up the inoculation drive, Malacanang said.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said those fully vaccinated accounts for 39.5 percent of the target adult population in the country.

He said at least 38.1 million Filipinos have already received one vaccine dose and that the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far has reached 69.7 million.

Roque said the government is expected to reach “herd immunity” by the end of the year, as the Philippines continues to record more than a million jabs per day.

On November 10, a total of 1,052,600 doses were administered, while on November 11, the daily jabs recorded was 1,239,981 – the highest daily vaccinations recorded thus far, said Roque.

On November 12, almost a million daily jabs were also logged at 971,159 total doses administered.

The total vaccines administered nationwide is now nearing 70 million, as of November 14, data from the National COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard said.

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso meanwhile announced that at least 50 percent of the city’s pediatric population have been administered COVID shots in a matter of less than two weeks since the mass inoculation of eligible minors began.

Based on the number of pre-registered minors, he said at least 50 percent have already been jabbed. He said the city welcomes even those who are not from Manila.

Local officials are also calling on parents and guardians to pre-register and have their children or wards vaccinated.

This, they said, is not only for the protection of the children within their household but also in preparation for the possible eventuality of the resumption of face-to-face classes. With Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta

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