Gov't to prioritize healthcare workers in administration of booster shots, Galvez says
Healthcare workers (HCWs) will be the first ones to be given a booster shot for an added protection against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday, Sept. 13, that the administration of booster shots will begin once a "sizeable amount or percentage" of the threshold is already fully vaccinated or inoculated with their first dose.
"Right now, we are still working on it. but the World Health Organization said there should be a sizeable amount or percentage of threshold of our population that is already vaccinated," Galvez said during the arrival of two million doses of Sinovac Biotech's CoronaVac vaccines.
Once the desired percentage is achieved, medical frontliners and other allied healthcare workers may be vaccinated by a booster shot by the end of this year or early 2022.
"At least, it's just right because our healthcare workers have been inoculated for six to eight months. But definitely, the healthcare workers are our priority," Galvez said.
He added that healthcare workers need not to worry because there is sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines for the booster shots.
"They should not be worried because once the Department of Health (DOH) and World Health Organization (WHO) decides to start the of booster shots for the healthcare workers, we have more than enough vaccines for them," Galvez said.
As of Monday, a total of 56.79 million COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to the country.
The negotiations for the procurement of "next generation" vaccine boosters in 2022 have also been initiated, with around P2.2 billion reportedly alloted for these supplies.
Galvez previously disclosed that the the next generation boosters can provide a higher protection against the emerging variants compared to the available vaccines which were given an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the DOH.