A government adviser said Thursday that booster shots should not be made a requirement as yet in establishments in the National Capital Region (NCR) pending significant COVID-19 vaccination coverage.
Dr. Edsel Salvana, of the Department of Health-Technical Advisory Group, gave the response after a suggestion was made by presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion that Metro Manila establishments should require proof of booster shot by March or April.
We are far from that point where we can administer booster shots to everyone because many have yet to get their primary vaccination against COVID-19,” Salvana said during the Laging Handa briefing.
The government’s focus, he said, should be to administer primary series.
“We want to make sure that the focus remains on the people who have to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” Salvana said.
Around 56.8 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far.
The government is eyeing to have 77 million Filipinos fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of March, and 90 million by the end of June or the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.
Salvana, meanwhile, warned against underestimating the COVID-19 threat just because the number of cases are decreasing based on the daily reports by the Department of Health.
“Just because it has become endemic, it will not be fatal. We must understand that the idea of COVID-19 being does not mean that it is not harmful anymore,” he said.
“COVID-19 being endemic just means vaccination, medicines for it are readily available, and this is something we can live with because we have transformed it into something that is a manageable risk that we need not resort to lockdowns,” Salvana said.
“If we will have an endemic mindset, like what Denmark did, at some point, one would no longer need to present a vaccine card and other things, even wearing a mask,” he said.
On Wednesday, acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said the government is now working on an exit plan from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve always been talking about that,” Nograles said in a television interview when asked if the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has such a plan.
The IATF, he said, has its own sub-technical working group on recovering, working on resolutions for the gradual reopening of the economy, reviving tourism and resuming face-to-face classes.
“So we have a task group for that and they are the ones putting the details on this resiliency plan that we have,” he said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said though the government does not yet use the term “endemic,” the direction is to see if people can live with the virus.
“Endemicity has many components – we need to see a sustained, controlled number of cases, more people are vaccinated, and fewer severe infections,” she said.