Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque has walked back on his statement Monday, Sept. 13 wherein he claimed that the government had approved a proposal to give healthcare workers "booster" shots against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In a virtual press briefing Tuesday, Sept. 14, Roque clarified that there was no such approval for carrying out booster shots.
Instead, he said, what is official so far is a recommendation from vaccine experts to administer extra COVID-19 vaccine doses to the medical frontliners.
"Mayroon lang pong rekomendasyon pa lang ang (There's only a recommendation from the) vaccine expert panel or VEP and this is still up for review," Roque said.
"Ulitin ko po, nag-recommend lang po ang vaccine expert panel na bigyan ng booster shots ang ating healthcare workers; wala pa pong desisyon ang IATF (I repeat, so far there's just a recommendation from the vaccine expert panel to give booster shots to our health workers; there's still no decision from the IATF)," he said.
The Palace official was referring to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Booster shots are extra doses of COVID-19 vaccines for individuals who are already deemed fully vaccinated against the deadly respiratory disease.
The issue of administering booster shots has become a sensitive topic for the government and Filipinos in general given that the country’s lack of supply for the life-saving jabs has delayed the inoculation of some sectors of the population.
On Monday, Roque categorically said that the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) had already approved the use of booster shots on healthcare workers. This was quickly disputed by the Department of Health (DOH).