The Philippine vaccine expert panel (VEP) will decide next week if COVID-19 booster shots are needed to curb the ongoing transmission of the disease, its chair said Friday.
"By next week, we will maybe have a decision about that. Our discussion about that is ongoing but we are considering many things such as the breakthrough infections to our healthcare workers,” Dr. Nina Gloriani said.
Thailand is planning to give AstraZeneca or mRNA-type booster shots to an estimated 3.4 million people who were administered the Sinovac brand.
Booster doses have been given to medical and frontline workers who received the Chinese vaccine in Thailand.
Gloriani said they were looking for the "best possible solution" to protect health-care workers amid the scarcity of vaccine supplies.
Should booster shots be made available, she said medical frontliners would be prioritized as they are the most exposed to the risk of COVID-19.
To date, only 14.1 million people in the country are fully vaccinated. This is 19.91 percent of the government's target of 70 million adult Filipinos.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. had said he was open to the idea of giving booster shots to health-care workers already fully vaccinated with Sinovac.
Galvez’s statement came more than a month after a study showed that antibodies triggered by Sinovac's vaccine declined around 6 months after a second dose for most recipients, although a third shot had a strong booster effect.
For its part, the World Health Organization (Who) had urged countries to "hold back" on providing booster shots as experts have yet to see "any evidence" that an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine could prevent breakthrough infections.
In related developments, the government is preparing to buy more vaccine doses as booster shots to give the people additional protection against the coronavirus disease.
Galvez said his team had started negotiating with four different manufacturers that produce COVID-19 booster shots.
He said these shots shall be initially allocated for the A1 priority group composed of medical frontliners and healthcare workers.
"Once they give us the cue that boosters are needed, we will process and arrange the procurement,” he said.
“We have started the negotiation and we will sign a non-binding term sheet soon just to lock in the supply,” Galvez added.
The national government, he said, has in fact allocated P45 billion for the procurement of booster shots.
