The country’s Covid-19 vaccine administration has slowed down following the onset of the election season, National Task Force against Covid-19 special adviser Dr. Teodoro “Ted” Herbosa said on Tuesday, March 29.
“Bumagal ang ating vaccine administration lalo na noong nagumpisa itong kampanya at politika. Ang kadalasang rason sa amin kung bakit hindi naabot ang target ay kulang ng tao (Our vaccine administration has slowed down especially when this campaign and politics began. One of the reasons why we were not able to achieve the target vaccinations is because of the inadequate manpower),” said Herbosa in an interview over DZBB.
The national government also failed to hit the 1.8 million target vaccinations during the fourth National Vaccination Days held in March 2022.
This, according to Herbosa, is one of the factors why many of the Covid-19 vaccines in the country have expired.
“ factor ay nakatanggap din tayo kasi ng donations which are expiring in other countries. Medyo short ang shelf life n’yan (Another factor is that we also received donations from other countries which are expiring. The shelf life of these vaccines is a bit short),” said Herbosa.
“Usually some of those ay nae-extend ang shelf life nila. Sumusulat kami sa main manufacturer and then the manufacturer will analyze kung yung batch ay (The shelf life of some of those can be extended. We usually write to the main manufacturer and then the manufacturer will analyze if the batch of that vaccine is well kept),” Herbosa furthered.
The expert likewise reiterated the importance of booster shots.
“Hindi ibig sabihin na may dalawang vaccine ay protected na kayo. Nag-we wane po ‘yan, bumababa ang neutralizing antibody at ang recommendation ay three months after your second dose ay magpabakuna na (Having two vaccine doses does not mean that you are protected. The vaccine immunity wanes. The neutralizing antibody drops at a certain point and the recommendation is to get boosted three months after your second dose),” said Herbosa.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health’s (DOH) National Covid-19 Vaccination Dashboard showed that as of March 9, 2022, a total of 63,992,620 individuals have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine, while only 10,675,663 have so far been boosted against the disease.