More than 132,000 Filipinos received their first booster shot against Covid-19 during the “Bakunahang Bayan” special vaccination activity held last Dec. 5 to 7, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.
"We were able to vaccinate first booster doses to 132,770 individuals nationwide," DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing on Friday, Dec. 9.
Vergeire also said that over 33,000 children aged five to 11 were also vaccinated during the three-day event
“For five to 11 years old, we were able to vaccinate an additional 33,239,” she said.
“Ngayon po ang percentage ng five to 11 years old na (Now, the percentage of those five to 11 years old who are) fully vaccinated with our Covid-19 vaccines, would already be almost 50 percent— 49.3 percent,” she added.
Annual Covid shot possible
In a related development, Vergeire said that vaccination against Covid-19 in a yearly manner is possible given the evolving nature of the virus.
Vergeire cited that at first, only two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine was necessary. However, the immunity it provides is waning over time, this is why booster doses were introduced.
“And now, there is evidence that there is this more specific vaccine that we have yung against the original strain plus the Omicron subvariants,” she said.
“So the evidence is continuously evolving and it is really not impossible that we will have additional vaccines in the future or maybe we can have this as regular as possible,” she added.