The Department of Health (DOH) said it is considering administering booster doses of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines if 50 percent of the country’s target population has already been vaccinated.
“So yung ibang eksperto po natin tinatalaga na at least 50 percent sana ay nabakunahan na para hindi naman po ma-disenfranchise yung mga taong hindi pa nababakunahan kahit isang dose-----kung tayo po ay sasabak na sa booster dosing (Some of our experts are suggesting that at least 50 percent should first be vaccinated so that other people who have yet to receive a vaccine will not be disenfranchised----if ever we will implement booster dosing),” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire during a public briefing on Saturday, Sept. 4.
Vergeire said that the country’s vaccine experts are considering the idea of providing booster shots to healthcare workers and immunocompromised individuals.
As of this time, the vaccine experts have yet to release their final recommendation with regards to booster shots, said Vergeire.
“Kailangan pa rin natin kunin yung tugon and rekomendasyon ng iba nating eksperto kasi we need to talk about equity, efficiency of spending of government (We still need to get the response and recommendations of our other experts because we need to talk about equity and efficiency of spending of government),” said Vergeire.
“So, pag uusapan ngayong lunes at magbibigay po tayo uli ng ating recommendation sa DOH at saka sa IATF (So, we will have a discussion about that on Monday and we will give our recommendation---the DOH and then to the IATF),” she added.
As of Aug. 29, the country has already given 33,099,392 doses of vaccines. Of this number, 13,784,681 people have been fully vaccinated while 19,314,711 already received their first dose, DOH data showed.