In this file photo taken on February 17, 2021 a nurse administers the Covid-19 vaccine to an elderly patient at the Dunkirk hospital. French Prime Minister announced on March 12, 2022 the opening of the fourth dose of vaccine "to the over 80s who have received their booster dose for more than three months", in the face of the slight rebound in the Covid epidemic, in an interview with Le Parisien. DENIS CHARLET / AFP

An infectious disease expert warned that there is a possibility that Covid-19 cases will increase again in the country if the number of people who received booster shots remains low.

Covid-19 booster shots are important amid the presence of the new coronavirus variants, said Department of Health – Technical Advisory Group (DOH-TAG) member Dr. Edsel Salvaña.

"Kung mababa ang bilang ng mga magpapabooster maaaring meron talaga tayong magkaroon ng spike in the number of infections lalo na kung ito ay recombinant or panibagong variant (If the number of booster coverage is low, we may actually have a spike in the number of infections, especially if it is recombinant or a new variant)," he said during a public briefing on Wednesday, April 6.

"Kailangan meron tayong kumbaga--insurance---ito nga yung pagbo-boost natin sa mga tao lalong-lalo na doon sa vulnerable population (We need to have insurance --- this is giving boosters to the people, especially the vulnerable population)," he added.

Salvana said that all vaccine brands right now are effective “against all the variants of concern.”

Meanwhile, Salvana said that the health experts are continuously monitoring the developments about Omicron XE or a “recombinant of BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages.”

“Sa ngayon, we are monitoring. In fact, ang XE hindi pa binabansagan na variant under monitoring or variant of concern (Right now, we are monitoring. In fact, XE has not yet been labeled a variant under monitoring or a variant of concern),” he said.

“Itong XE definitely madedetect naman ng ating Genome Center at tuloy-tuloy naman po yung surveillance ng Philippine Genome Center sa mga samples na nakukuha natin sa mga sentinel sites (This XE will definitely be detected by our Genome Center. The Philippine Genome Center will continue to monitor the samples we are getting from the sentinel sites),” he added.

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said that Omicron XE was first detected in January. Around 700 cases were already found in the United Kingdom and one case in Thailand.

"Base sa initial na datos ay nakakita ng mga eksperto na mas nakakahawa tila ang XE variant by about 10 percent higher transmissibility compared po sa BA.2 sublineage (Based on the initial data, the experts found that the XE variant seems to be more transmissible— by about 10 percent higher transmissibility compared to the BA.2 sublineage),” said Duque during the “Talk to the People” program of President Duterte on April 5.

“Kaya naman hinihikayat natin ang lahat na tuparin ang mga ating nakagawiang minimum public health standards... at magpabakuna sapagkat napatunayan natin na ang mga ito, kahit na noon pa man, ay talagang game-changer po ito, epektibo laban sa anumang variant (That is why we encourage everyone to adhere to our minimum public health standards... and get vaccinated because we have already proven that they are really game-changers, effective against any variant),” he added.

As of April 4, there were 66.2 million individuals who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. However, only 12.2 million people have received their booster shots, the DOH said.

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